Where I live the fire department budget comes out of the general fund. Residents of our city do not pay for ambulance rides to the hospital, but if you live somewhere else they do charge, I think $1200 was the last figure I heard.

Fire department as a profit center seems like a very bad idea just for the conflict of interest it could create. In this case vandals burn down the bridge, FD showed up and failed to save it and then billed the innocent railroad for the fire departments inadequate efforts. Seems to me they should have billed the kids, except they knew they couldn’t pay.

Firemen are known to have arsonists among their members. If you are running a business fighting fires and business is slow, what’s to stop them from starting fires and determining the cause that suits their outcome and sending out bills?

If firefighting is going to be a for profit business maybe the market should be opened up to other players than government.