Another burning question
I see there are yet more charges being introduced today.
The fire brigade is going to charge €500 for a callout.
Yup. You read that correctly. Half a fucking grand to put out that chip pan fire or that smoking chimney.
At the moment this only applies to Dublin but how long will it be before other councils realise that there is another fat cash cow out there?
This charge raises all sorts of questions though.
For a start, if I were a councillor I would send out a discreet memo to all my brigades ordering them to fill the water tenders with good old fashioned petrol. After all, we are constantly being told of water shortages, and anyway at the best part of €500 an hour, we wouldn’t want them to put the fire out too quickly, now would we?
They claim the costs can easily be reclaimed through insurance, but what happens if the householder doesn’t have insurance? There are one hell of a lot of people who don’t have it, either because of the cost or no company will insure them. Of course even if you are insured, you’ll still pay as the insurance companies are just going to increase premiums to cover the extra claims.
So supposing your house goes on fire, and you have no insurance? The brigade arrives and happily spends a few hours putting the fire out. You then inform them that you are broke and can’t possibly pay the couple of grand they are demanding. What are the brigade to do then? Their only recourse to to reignite the blaze and leave the poor householder to it.
Of course with the way house prices have gone in the last couple of years, it would be a lot cheaper to just let the house burn.
Jesus H Christ, you’ll soon have to pay for the fresh air outside your house.
Mossy don’t say that too loud or they will hear you!!
It was done in the States last year. Fire brigade arrived at a house and when the residents told them that there was no fire insurance they stood back and watched the house burn.
Let’s be honest and say that we’d all prefer that our firemen collect their wages and stay safely in the Firehouse, no need to earn the money.
It wasn’t about insurance. The city levies an annual fee for firefighter coverage for homes that are not incorporated within the city limits. Those that didn’t pay it got to watch the fire burn itself out.
Mossy – I agree with Cat. Shut the fuck up. You know they will find ANY excuse to rip more cash out of us. After all, they are sinking so low as to tax excrement.
JOS – When you think about it, it is tantamount to demanding money with menaces? Pay us, or we’ll let your house burn down? Fucking criminal!
TT – OK. As well as demanding money with menaces, we can add protectionism to the charge sheet? Heh!
Does Sean Quinn have fire insurance? Maybe The Bank of Junk (Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Ltd. , formerly Anglo) could do the demanding with menaces thing. They could get ‘Holey Foley’ (The Viper) on the job.
If you crash your car and the Firefighters attend you’ll be charged €610.
Oozing your life’s blood clinging onto your last few teeth, legs trapped by a burning engine, glass embedded in your head and some yellow helmeted cunt is asking you ‘Cash or Charge, Sir’.
Fukkit, I’m afraid to fart anymore.
Set fire to the fire stations. We might end up in profit.