Fire Department Says Cost Recovery Applies to Nonresidents; Councilor Seeks Follow-Up on $11,000 Bill

Deputy Division Chief Matt Wood told the council on Sept. 2 that the city uses a company called Fire Recovery to seek cost recovery for certain emergency responses involving nonresidents. "What that is for is for, people who do not live in the city of Springfield. We, charge if there's a car wreck, fires, that type of thing, for cost recovery, on certain things," Wood said.

Alderman Rockford said a constituent whose building burned reported a bill for roughly $11,000 and said the incident occurred inside city limits. Wood said he would follow up and requested the alderman send the address so staff could investigate whether the cost recovery policy was properly applied. "I would have to follow-up with that, if if he is a is is the building," Wood said, adding he would email the alderman after checking records.

The council did not vote on a policy change at the Sept. 2 meeting. Wood said the Fire Recovery arrangement was adopted in November (year not specified in remarks), and he described the program as intended to recover costs for nonresident incidents; the transcript record indicates staff committed to follow up on the billed incident to clarify whether the resident, owner or the property’s insurance should bear the charge.