Why? The goal is to incentivize property owners to fix broken systems not to pay for the actual cost of responding to a real call. That's covered by taxes.

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ralegh 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Depending on who is paying and how much, someone might light a small fire to avoid the fine.

	▲	mindslight 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Arson when the fire department is already on the way. Great idea! Firefighters hate this one simple trick.

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bell-cot 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd interpret the "minus first N per year" to mean that you get a few "free" fires per year - but after that your habits filling your closets with oily rags, overloading electrical extension cords, and smoking in bed will start to cost you.

	▲	munk-a 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Fire is one of those things that really sucks for you - but also really sucks for your neighbors. You never want to supply any reason for someone to demur about reporting a fire.
	▲	eastbound 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm sure someone somewhere will interpret it a 3 free demos of firefighters at home for their kid, with sirens and light, pretty entertaining (It's a reference to the Freakonomics study that, if you make parents pay by the minutes for being late getting their kid, they basically take the fine as a slightly expensive childcare facility).