(A) The Fire Department shall have the authority to bill insurance carriers for loss of or damage to equipment used in fighting any fire or abating any hazardous condition. Such service charges shall be billed to the company providing coverage to the owner upon whose property the incident occurred and shall not include charges for normal wear and usage of equipment or for the cost of consumables such as water or other extinguishing agents, or labor. Only equipment damaged or lost as a direct result of extinguishing a fire or other hazard abatement, at the specific site charged, shall be subject to such service charge. No service charge for any single piece of equipment or apparatus shall exceed the original purchase price of such equipment or apparatus, and such charges shall be prorated for usage whenever practical. Each such service charge shall be itemized and shall be payable to the City Treasurer.
(B) The Department shall impose a service charge for services rendered by it in connection with motor vehicle accidents. The amount of such service charge shall be the current apparatus hourly rate, described in the annual report of the Fire Chief submitted to the City Manager by February 1 of each year, and the current hourly rate for each firefighter responding to each such incident.
(1) In motor vehicle accidents resulting in the issuance of citations by the investigating police agencies, the person or persons found responsible or guilty of any infraction causing or contributing to said motor vehicle accident shall be billed for the entire amount of such service charge.
(2) In motor vehicle accidents where one or more parties are issued citations by the investigating police agency, and where more than one party is found responsible or guilty of any infraction causing or contributing to the occurrence of said motor vehicle accident, all such parties found responsible or guilty shall be jointly and severally liable for the entire amount of such service charges imposed by the Department.
(3) If no citations are issued by the investigating police agency, the service charge imposed by the Fire Department shall be shared equally by all owners of all vehicles involved in said motor vehicle accident.
(C) In the event that equipment of the Department is lost or damaged in the course of providing mutual-aid assistance to the Fire Department of another jurisdiction pursuant to an existing mutual-aid agreement, the Department shall impose a charge for such lost or damaged equipment to the jurisdiction to which mutual-aid assistance was rendered, provided that the imposition of such charge does not violate the terms or conditions of the mutual-aid agreement.
(D) The Department shall impose a service charge upon the owner of any property located outside the city limits to which the Department responds to a call for firefighting or hazard abatement services, if such call for services was made by the owner or occupant of such property. The Department shall also impose a service charge upon any other governmental entity to which the Department provides assistance in firefighting or hazard abatement if such request for assistance was made by the governmental entity, and if such other governmental entity was not a party to a mutual-aid assistance agreement with the city. The charges imposed upon such property owners or governmental entities shall be calculated in the same manner as the service charge described in division (B) above.
(E) Any site within the city limits having any type of automatic warning device which will result in the automatic dispatching of the Department to such a site must maintain such system in good working order at all times. In the event of a false alarm for any reason as a result of the activation of the property owner’s automated system, the following shall apply.
(1) Each site is allowed one false alarm per calendar year from January 1 through December 31, without charge.
(2) If a second false alarm occurs within such calendar year, the property owner shall be billed by the Department the hourly cost for each apparatus responding to such false alarm as established in the annual report of the Department submitted to the City Manager on or before February 1 of each year, and also the hourly cost of each firefighter responding to such false alarm.
(3) Third and subsequent false alarms at the same site shall be billed service charges computed in the same manner as described in division (B)(2) above.
(4) All such false alarm charges shall be paid to the City Treasurer.
(F) All service charges and fees imposed by the Department under authority of this section shall be due and payable to the City Treasurer within 30 days after the mailing of written invoices therefor. If not paid within 30 days, the city may take all measures available to it by law to collect such charges.
(Prior Code, § 250.06)