MOULTRIE – County residents’ insurance companies could be charged for the Volunteer Firefighters Association’s response to fires and wrecks, if commissioners agree to it.
The Volunteer Firefighters Association, an organization that represents all the volunteer fire departments in the county, submitted a proposal to the county commission Feb. 6 that would allow it to recoup money from the insurance company of a homeowner or vehicle owner when one of its departments responds to a fire or wreck involving the insured property.
The county’s volunteer fire departments are funded with property tax directed to the Volunteer Firefighters Association from the county’s budget each year. County Administrator Chas Cannon said the stipend had doubled over the last several years, reaching more than a million dollars in the current budget year.
Dustin Hart, president of the Volunteer Firefighters Association, handed out paperwork with projected income that could be recouped for them by Fire Recovery USA, a cost recovery company.
“It think it’s $104,000 and back to our pocket is $81,000. They do charge a 22% fee,” he said. “We only pay them when they bill and recover. If they do not recover, no cost.”
Commission Chair Denver Braswell asked if it was billed from the Volunteer Firefighters Association to the insurance company without involving the homeowner and Hart responded, “Yes.”
“We turn our paperwork over to Fire Recovery, which is the company that we’re gonna use, and they bill directly to the insurance company,” he said.
Hart also said that the company offered different options that they could choose. He said, with motor vehicle accidents, they could opt to bill a driver directly if they are not insured.
“That’s something that if you allow us to do, we’ll do,” he said. “Basically, what we need is your blessing to move forward.”
Hart said that he had spoken with Worth County, which had used the cost recovery service for ten years, and was told that they had gotten back anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000. However, he said, there was no guarantee as it was based on call volume and type of calls.
“At the rate we’re going, in 2024, we’re gonna keep climbing. Call volume is steadily increasing for us on the fire side,” he said.
He also said that they would not be billing for fire alarms, grass fire or forest fires, even though Fire Recovery USA offers those cost recovery options in its services. He said they planned to bill only for structure fires, vehicle fires and wrecks.
“Basically, we just want to get this money from the insurance company that the insurance company is already charging for. It’s already a line item for them. If we don’t get it, they just pocket that money. That’s the way it was told to me,” he said.
Responding to a question from Braswell, Hart said payment would go to the Volunteer Firefighters Association’s general fund, but members had discussed distributing some of the revenue to individual departments to offset fuel costs.
County Attorney Lester Castellow further researched the law and returned at the commission’s Feb. 20 meeting with a different view.
“The bottom line is we can do this but all the money has to come to us [the county government],” he told the county commissioners. “We can bill them [insurance companies]. The VFDs cannot bill them. Now, if we want to bill them and pay some part or all or none to the VFD, that’s y’all’s decision,” he said.
He further explained that the statute allows the county to bill for fire response but it does not say that an outside party like the Volunteer Firefighters Association can bill. As of the time of the Feb. 20 meeting, Castellow said he hadn’t spoken with Hart about what he’d determined.
Cannon said that he would call Hart and see if he still wanted to pursue using the cost recovery company with the money going to the county and then being distributed to the Volunteer Firefighters Association.
The only other fire department in the county — the Moultrie Fire Department — does not use a cost recovery service, Moultrie Fire Chief Chad Kilgore told The Observer.