[newzjunkey]

You miss that those departments, different from the fire dept., are revenue generating bureaucrats with no other purpose.

[an amused spectator]

You miss that those departments, different from the fire dept., are revenue generating bureaucrats with no other purpose.

The fire department in this instance (and in most other instances) is like the IT department in most companies.

Management (or the local government leaders) can stand around saying: "Well, IT (or the fire department) doesn't produce any revenue, so what are they doing for the cash we're giving them?"

In this case, a number of revenue-producing (property tax) structures burned to the ground. An inspection by the fire marshals would have secured the revenue from most of these places. As with IT, the marginalized "product" from the fire department was worth its weight (and more) in tax dollars.

I'm sure the local government would like to continue to collect the same property tax from the burned-out owners, but we haven't quite gotten to that point yet.

Yet. ;-)

[an amused spectator]

You miss that those departments, different from the fire dept., are revenue generating bureaucrats with no other purpose.

SevenofNine (post #21): "Norm few years ago my aunt decided clear brush on her own property did you know she got ticketed by San Diego fire dept"

We could be wrong... **grin**