So what you're saying is that you'd feel better being the ONLY person in town paying car insurance and having to 'pay' for everyone's cars to be fixed when they get into an accident? That's what would happen if they let people slide on simple shit like this. IMO, a $75 is NOTHING in comparison to other costs that come along with home ownership, so if they can't/don't pay it, oh well.
And you can't say that the FD stopped treating people like people, as they stated they would rescue anyone trapped inside, but a person is not their belongings.
Just like when people total their car, everyone says, oh its only a car, glad you weren't hurt. No one was injured in this situation, and if the homeowner had sufficient insurance he would be just fine.
I think the homeowner failed 3 times in this situation. 1st, by starting a fire in some barrels near his residence, 2nd, by not paying his $75 annual fire department fee, and 3rd, by not carrying enough insurance on his property to cover damages. I mean damn, what else could he have screwed up?