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Actually, the ultimate judge of the actions would be a court not the firefighters. The insurance company would have a good case that the firefighter was hurt trying to protect a non-client and isn't responsible to pay-out insurance on the firefighter's injuries.

As you say, if lives where at risk (not in this situation) and the charter and insurance policies noted the exception, then the insurance company would be on the hook for injury payments. This case didn't involve a person in danger and would probably give the insurance company a very good case for not paying.




OK, but when you're considering whether and how to fight a fire in a burning building there's no court to make the decision for you; and even afterwards, all the expert witnesses are going to be firefighters talking about the particular risks presented by the particular structure.

If the insurance policy draws a distinction between whether or not lives at risk when a non-subscriber's call is answered, then the insurance company may have a case as you describe. But your comment seems to assume this is the norm, whereas the questionnaires I've looked at don't make that distinction.

Remember such insurance policies (issued to a FD) are upon life and limb, rather than on department revenue stability. An insurance company would challenge a payout if they felt the fire department (perhaps because of bad training or staffing policy) foolishly ordered a crew into an impossibly dangerous situation resulting in injury or death, even if the property owner was a paying subscriber. In reality, fire crews sometimes have to let a property burn and just try to stop the fire spreading, because the presence of chemicals or an unsafe building structure makes it too risky to enter.




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