A truly private fire service might have been able to strike some rapid deal for an amount somewhere between their costs-to-respond and the expected remaining-value-to-be-saved.
But, it was a city fire service, unmotivated by profit, risk-averse, and bound by inflexible bureaucratic rules.
In either case, negotiating a reasonable price balancing all the factors after the fire has started is so much more difficult to do in an equitable manner that I can understand why either municipal or purely-private fire companies might avoid doing so, on principle.
Also, given the rural setting, it's probable there were no water mains/hydrants nearby and some limited-number of tank trucks were covering a large area. Using any would mean less service for prepaid subscribers; for example any gallon deployed to save Cranick's house wouldn't be available to prevent the flames from spreading to the subscribing neighbor's yard.
With such difficult tradeoffs, and sitting at my keyboard thousands of miles away with a mixture of incomplete summary reports and perfect hindsight, I prefer to assume that the local responders were neither idiots nor heartless but did the best within the constraints they knew.
But, it was a city fire service, unmotivated by profit, risk-averse, and bound by inflexible bureaucratic rules.
In either case, negotiating a reasonable price balancing all the factors after the fire has started is so much more difficult to do in an equitable manner that I can understand why either municipal or purely-private fire companies might avoid doing so, on principle.
Also, given the rural setting, it's probable there were no water mains/hydrants nearby and some limited-number of tank trucks were covering a large area. Using any would mean less service for prepaid subscribers; for example any gallon deployed to save Cranick's house wouldn't be available to prevent the flames from spreading to the subscribing neighbor's yard.
With such difficult tradeoffs, and sitting at my keyboard thousands of miles away with a mixture of incomplete summary reports and perfect hindsight, I prefer to assume that the local responders were neither idiots nor heartless but did the best within the constraints they knew.