City of Bellemeade

I am glad you posted the letter from the Lyndon Fire Department because I have heard and read a lot of confusing reports from the media about the decision to "charge" for fire runs.  But even after reading the leter several times, I am still not clear on what circumstances determine what charges will be levied.  I have heard numerous first and second hand comments portraying fears that insurnace rates will skyrocket for those people whose homeowners policy is charged for a run.  And, beyond that, some fear that insurance rates will rise in Lyndon (and Bellemeade) just simply because of the inference that there will be a reduction in service and in the fire-fighting effectiveness.

Next concern:  Middletown has not made the same decision.  Scenario:  Bellemeade resident calls Lyndon FD for fire in residence.  LFD relays the call to Middletown who send a big red truck and LFD sends an officer in one of those SUVs.  Total of two vehicles show up, one each from two different departments.  If Lyndon sends two, we will be charged, but what if one comes from Middletown?

Good questions. I do not have an answere at the moemet but I will forward the questions to the Lyndon Fire Chief and report his answer later.

From the Fired Department:

Only a very small portion of what we do will be part of the cost recovery program.  This includes…

• only certain types of emergency response. This will mostly apply to vehicle accidents, hazardous materials, large structure fires, multiple false alarms and special rescues as examples.
• The responsible party will be sent an itemized invoice to forward to their insurance carrier for payment.
• Our 3^rd party billing company will work with the insurance company to obtain payment. They keep a percentage of what they collect and forward the remainder to us. They are not a collection agency and they do not attempt to recover from the individual .
• If they are unable to obtain payment from the insurance carrier the claim is sent back to us . At this time we have no intention of initiating collection actions.
• Fees for certain commercial code enforcement practices are included in our plan. These include
  • Permits for about 80 different operations (such as fireworks sales, assemblies, flammable and combustible liquids…)
  • Code enforcement inspections

We will continue to provide most our services for no additional cost to the public. These include…

• All home safety services, such as smoke detector / battery checks and installs, home inspections, family safety planning, CO checks remain free
• All public fire safety education programs, materials, events, promotions, drills and mentoring remain free of charge
• All preplanning services, for both fire response as well as public preplan service like preliminary plan reviews and consultations are free
• All medical responses and most other emergency responses remain at no charge

Thank you very much for the clarification.

Is their any credence to the part about insurance ratings changing leading to rising rates?