Tennessee couple got an $1,800 firefighting bill for a blaze at their neighbor’s house — and the invoices kept coming for months

But a couple in Farragut, Tenn., had a different kind of wake-up call after their neighbors suffered a fire.

The private fire department in their community sent them a bill for the fire at their neighbor’s home. And the bills kept coming.

A surprise $1,800 bill

Mike Gray told Knoxville’s 6 News on Your Side that on June 18, as he was sitting on his back porch drinking a coffee, he heard noises from his neighbor’s yard. Then he saw the fire.

“I could see flames coming out over the fence two doors down. The neighbor was down there trying to put out a fire with her hose. And probably about 10 to 15 minutes later, Rural Metro showed up,” Gray told 6 News.

While Gray said the fire was put out in 10 minutes. Days later, his wife Jan opened an $1,800 bill from Rural Metro, the community’s private fire department.

Jan Gray told News 6 that she called the phone number on the bill, and spoke to a customer service representative in California. But that didn’t solve the problem.

“The people keep saying, ‘It will be taken care of.’ It’s been months since June,” Jan Gray told News 6.

They kept getting reminders from Rural Metro, and they told News 6 they worried that the bill could go to collections.

“We’re retired and live on Social Security. $1,800 is a lot of money for something that didn’t happen here,” Jan Gray said.

News 6 spoke to the Grays’ neighbor, Paxton Jones, who confirmed that Rural Metro did put out a fire at his home in June. His wife and mother had been burning brush in the backyard, he told the news team.

News 6 reached out to Rural Metro on behalf of the Grays, and within one day, a manager had resolved the issue.

Jan Gray told News 6 she spoke to someone at Rural Metro: “He said, ‘Well, I have taken care of it. You are no longer responsible for this bill.’ I asked him for confirmation, and he sent me an email. He said he was sorry, didn’t know how it happened, and it’s gone,” she said.

The report notes that since the incident, the Grays opted to renew their membership with Rural Metro.

How do private fire services work?

For unincorporated communities that don’t have city-level governments, private fire departments can be the only option.

Rural Metro Fire, which serves Tennessee’s Knox County, is funded through memberships, since there are no city property taxes collected.

Does that mean that if a resident doesn’t pay the membership fee, the fire department won’t respond to a fire at their home?

No, but it could mean a huge bill after the fact, the Farragut Press reports.

According to Rural Metro’s website, bills for fire department response for non-members “can be significant depending on the resources required.”