Free Republic

<p>PHOENIX - A man's house burned to the ground, but that wasn't his only shock -- because two weeks later, he received a bill for almost $20,000 from the private fire department that tried to fight it.</p> <p>One state lawmaker says fire coverage in rural areas of Arizona is a mess and he says there needs to be oversight.</p>

I'm looking for some input from knowledgeable folks here on FreeRepublic about an interesting matter a friend of mine is dealing with. He owns a commercial building with a wet sprinkler system, and a tenant is looking to install a lot of new electronic/IT equipment in one room. The building code requires the sprinklers, but there's an obvious risk to expensive electronic equipment (and maybe an elevated risk of electrocution for staff and firefighters) if the sprinklers are activated in a fire. The obvious solution would be to remove the sprinkler heads in that particular room, but this is not...

A disputed land-use strategy designed to protect new developments from devastation in the county's exurban, fire-prone areas appears to have passed its first and most critical test this week. As the Witch Creek fire raced through some of San Diego County's priciest neighborhoods and crept to the edge of others north and east of Rancho Santa Fe, not a single home in the five subdivisions that have implemented the strategy was lost, fire authorities said. The communities, which together cover hundreds of acres, are The Bridges, The Crosby, Cielo, Santa Fe Valley and 4S Ranch. Officials with the Rancho Santa...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State lawmakers repealed a controversial fire protection fee on rural property owners Thursday, replacing the lost funds with general taxes as part of the new state budget. They also rejected several other fees tied to timber harvests, California Coastal Commission permits and the accidental killing of species protected by the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted the fees to help close the state's massive budget gap, but gave them up when his fellow Republicans objected, said Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. Instead, the Republican governor and majority Democrats agreed to take the money from the...