Demolition company equipment used to put out fire – Who foots the bill?
It is a common sight in Hollywood movies. Movie police regularly haul people from their cars and motorcycles and seize the vehicle to give chase to a criminal. But are they allowed to do so legally and who is responsible for any damage subsequently inflicted upon the vehicle?
It’s a question that is facing a US demolition company, although in this instance, the vehicle was a $300,000 excavator and the “perp” was a debris fire.
G&H Construction was doing a job in LeClaire, breaking down an old barn. Afterwards, the homeowner tried to burn the debris from the job in a dug up hole in the ground, but there was a burn ban in place so the fire department came to put it out, taking control of the company’s $300,000 excavator on site to dig up dirt and extinguish the fire, causing $14,000 worth of damage in the process.
“It’s not a fire-fighting piece of equipment, it doesn’t belong to you,” Julie Sundholm, office manager of G&H Construction says, but this excavator was used to fight a fire anyway.
Sundholm, who helps run her family’s construction business, says when they found out what was happening, her brother raced to the scene.
“[We were] absolutely surprised and appalled that someone would actually break into a machine that was locked and start it up and proceed to use it, without knowing anything about the machine,” she says.
Statements from firefighters on scene state they did not see any damage to the excavator after it was used, but the Sundholms’ repair bills say otherwise.
“There were some hydraulic hoses that were blistered, a lot of the seals and things around the connections had been melted,” Sundholm says.
All in all, over $14,000 for repairs and missed work each day the machine was out.
Sundholm says the city cited this part of the state fire code to explain their actions. Section 102.2 of the code addresses authority in a fire, and says, “A fire chief or other authorized officer… may direct an operation as necessary to extinguish or control a fire, or perform a rescue operation.”
“This code allows fire officials to do certain things to extinguish a fire or save life and limb, but I don’t know that that’s a blank check to do anything and everything,” State Fire Marshal Ray Reynolds says.
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