Ta-Nehisi Coates points to this dystopian report of a fire department standing around while a family’s house burns to the ground because its owner didn’t pay the $75 fire protection fee. This is pretty obviously bad policy. Letting things burn can lead to other things burning. It can lead to people getting killed.
A number of communities avoid running full fire departments by employing volunteer fire fighters. Others contract out with private fire-truck operators. There are many, many ways to avoid staffing a full, expensive fire department and saving those tax dollars for other more essential services (a lot of places only staff full fire departments during the summer months, for instance, and use more volunteers in the off season). Paying on a fee-for-service model just doesn’t make sense. These people are now without a home, and will probably require other, more expensive services from the local (and state, and federal) government. This is ludicrous. It is ideology taken to the brink of stupidity and then shoved headfirst into the roiling pit.