SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A man who watched his Latham Island home burn two days before Christmas said he was shocked when his family received a letter from the fire department and then a bill from the City of Yellowknife demanding he pay the $12,354.54 cost of fighting the fire.

A fire at 20 Hearne Hill Road on Latham Island Dec. 23, 2010, required 32 firefighters to respond. The city has billed the homeowners $12,354.54 for services rendered by the fire department. - NNSL file photo

The bulk of the bill is more than $10,000 in overtime pay for firefighters.

"I am still in shock," said Dan Westman. "I suppose I should consider myself lucky it didn't happen on Christmas - it might have cost me $25,000," he said, referring to the overtime.

Westman said he received the invoice in the mail on Feb. 28. He has 30 days to pay from the date on the invoice of Feb. 18. Otherwise, according to the city's bylaw, 1.8 per cent will be added to the total each month. If the amount still isn't paid, the city may add it to Westman's property taxes the next time they're due.

He said he has submitted the invoice to his insurance company, but hasn't received notice as to how much, if any, of the bill will be covered.

The Emergency Response and Protection bylaw, first passed in 1990, lists a minimum charge of $500 for the first two hours the fire department responds to an emergency and an additional $200 minimum for each additional two hours, plus actual overtime costs for firefighters.

The Westmans were billed the $500 minimum plus $1,200 for additional hours and $10,654.54 for overtime paid to the firefighters.

Fellow Yellowknife resident Barry Taylor isn't surprised to hear the Westmans got a bill from the city for the Dec. 23 fire. Taylor received a bill for about $3,700 after the fire department responded to the blaze that engulfed his home on 48 Street in April of 2008.

"I'm not surprised anytime I get a bill from the government," he said.

Taylor said his insurance company covered the expense.

Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad said not every call results in a bill from the city, only those that require the fire department to "go to somebody's house and we're actually applying a service like dealing with a fire." He added that it's "not a 100 per cent cost recovery, but it covers some of our costs."

Hernblad also said statutory holidays do not add to the overtime costs. According to a press release from the fire department on Dec. 24, the day after the fire, 32 firefighters, two chief officers, a pump and water tanker truck, and an ambulance responded to the scene of the house fire at 12:50 p.m.

The release stated the blaze was caused by a chimney fire resulting in $650,000 in damages to the home. Hernblad later confirmed the fire took about 12 hours to fight.

"I must admit that when bills get large like this it must catch people by surprise," the fire chief said. "It's not every day that people have an emergency, so it's not something that's common knowledge because it's not out there all the time."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the rationale for the bylaw when it was first implemented was to respond to pressure from the community to implement more fee-for-services in addition to property taxes. An analogy, he said, would be the extra costs only for residents that need water to be delivered by trucks. Van Tighem added another rationale for the bylaw was the expectation that insurance companies would cover the costs of firefighting. As to whether the bylaw is fair, Van Tighem said it's up to city council to determine if the policy needs to be adjusted.

"We learn by each experience. As residents we learn to check the insurance we've got. That's why the Fees and Charges bylaw comes up at least once a year - what have we learned in the last year and what should be changed, and this is one of the examples that will be in that discussion," he said.

The Town of Hay River currently doesn't charge residents for fighting fires, but that could change in the next couple of months if Ross Potter, the town's fire chief, has his way.

Potter said there is currently a proposal before the Hay River town council that could be voted on in the next couple of months. If passed, the bylaw would be similar to Yellowknife's, allowing the fire department to recover costs from fire calls.

"I definitely support it, I can't say whether (town) council does," he said.

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