Concur. Perhaps a better policy would be to fully charge for such rescue incidents. That would stop a lot of these people who far, far overestimate their abilities and who completely fail to use their critical thinking skills. Baring some unusual circumstance, I, as a taxpayer, should not have to pay for someone’s foolishness that also puts others in jeopardy.
They already bill people for things like this, especially since it involes ambulance or helicopter transport. As the article says, what precipitated this new policy was that firefighters were being sickened and taken out of service as a result of these unnecessary rescues. That endangers not just the firefighters, but the rest of the community as well.