I guarantee you that no department is going to watch someone burn to death inside the house.
Regardless of "policy", lawsuits would be monumental, not to mention public relations backlashes.
You're probably right, it's a huge liability issue. But then they're performing their duty without payment, which strains the resources. Making coverage mandatory and levying a tax to pay for it covers all the bases. The taxes I pay for "911" service are flat fees and come out to about $69/year. I choose to pay an additional $50 a year to fund the ambulance service - and if I or anyone in my my family were to need it we wouldn't be charged for the call. Seems reasonable enough to me.
Besides the lawsuits in such a case, can you imagine the backlash on the fire department?
People would be out for BLOOD in a situation like that.
My area sounds around the same as yours pretty much. I'm not sure about ambulance though. As far as I know, you pay $500 for an ambulance ride and I'm not sure there's insurance for it or not.
They're probably gotten $500 from me over the years and we've never used it...yet. *knock on wood* But I don't mind, this area has a lot of elderly trying to live on social security and has been hit very hard with unemployment. Giving a little extra to make sure they have the funds to carry all the balances for folks who can only pay $5 or $10 a month on their bills doesn't kill us.