Bigfork Fire Department enacts crash fees

The Bigfork Volunteer Fire Department is working to get the word out that Polson’s district isn’t the only one to start charging fees for response to motor-vehicle accidents.

The Polson Rural Fire Board recently endured a month of debate and controversy over a proposal and then a decision to adopt fees for wreck response within its district. Its adopted rates, for now, mimic Bigfork’s rates, which were adopted only a month earlier.

“It was a way to look at not asking for more money from the taxpayers,” Bigfork Chief Wayne Loeffler said of the fees.

The Bigfork department started discussions regarding charges for motor-vehicle accidents about a year ago based on the realization that budgets are tight and response to calls like car wrecks can be costly.

“We looked at it for a long time and had board discussions,” he said. “The thing is that equipment is so expensive.”

The thought with the fee was that it would help offset the costs incurred by responding to accidents and help replace the equipment used overtime, he said.

The motor-vehicle accident fees were approved by the Bigfork Rural Fire District board at its Dec. 15 meeting and have since gone into effect, though the department has yet to have to invoke them, Loeffler said. Rates, which range from $500 to $1,750, are based on the amount of time spent at the scene and whether or not rescue tools are used.

“We felt these were pretty realistic and pretty fair rates for reimbursement,” Loeffler said of the prices, which he noted are not anywhere near the actual cost of the response.

Fees aren’t new to the Bigfork department. For half a dozen years, it’s charged for false alarms, gas line breaks and hazmat calls. For gas line breaks, similar to motor-vehicle accidents, the fee depends on the time spent at the scene. Fees for hazmat are based on the size of the spill, and responses to false alarms are charged after the third false alarm.

“Basically it was a way to offset costs and upgrade equipment so we can do the best we can to protect people and live within the means of our budget,” Loeffler said.

All of this has been part of the transition local fire departments have gone through from straight fire response to having to respond to a multitude of emergency situations.

“We’ve gone from basic fire service to dealing with all emergencies,” he said. “What we are asked to do has really grown and with that comes having to have new equipment and upkeep equipment to do those kinds of things.”

Loeffler noted that fire departments across the country have and are adopting similar charges for the same reasons. In the Flathead Valley, the departments in Evergreen and Somers also have response charges, Loeffler said.

Surrounding the debate about Polson’s fees were discussions on whether only those from outside the district should be charged. Loeffler said Bigfork’s decision was that it needed to be done across the board.

“Our feeling was that if we were going to do this we need to charge everybody or nobody,” he said.

To enact the fees, information is gathered at the scene and then turned over to a billing agency the department already works with for its other fees and medical services. Insurance is billed first and some insurance providers cover such costs, Loeffler said. Those at the scene are billed, but it’s up to insurance companies to figure out who is at fault, Loeffler said, noting that’s not a call the fire department will be making.

The fees only apply to responses within the Bigfork Rural Fire District bounds. They do not apply to mutual aid calls outside the district, such as when the department helps with calls in the Ferndale or Creston areas.

Now that the board has approved the fees, Loeffler said he’s working on outreach to make sure residents know about them.

“The bottomline is we want to let the community know,” Loeffler said.

Loeffler said he went and spoke with members of the Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce about the issue to start getting the word out.

“We’re going to try it and see what happens,” he said. “We wanted to take a look at it.”