Offroad-Express

After reading through a bunch of 4x4 insurance threads, I ended up signed up with Lumley via John Barley. All good, I'm pleased with the policy and so forth.

However, what is confusing me is the option to add on "rural fire service levy insurance". I see from older posts that a number of people have signed up for this.

Scenario 2
You are in a wilderness area or the bush on your own, totally unaware of a fire which is being extinguished by the
Forestry Department or Fire Service. This fire is within a 5 mile radius of your location and you - along with other people
who are in the area - have been noted by the Forestry Department as being in this region at the time.
Under the Rural Fire Services Act, simply because you were within the region of the fire (not caused by you) you, along
with all the other people in the area at the time, will get charged with the cost of extinguishing that fire. If there are
10 people in the area, the cost is split 10 ways. If you are the only one in the area - the cost is all yours. This is not
covered by your motor vehicle policy or by any other policy available in the market.

It's not especially cheap: starting at $74.75 per year.
I wasn't convinced, so we went looking for the Rural Fire Services Act and found that no such thing exists. The nearest I could find was the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977 and the Fire Service Act 1975. I spent a while looking through these, and I can't find anything about a 5 mile radius, nor anything about attributing liability to people in the area, even if they aren't responsible for starting the fire.
Additionally, I found a write-up about Tucker v New Zealand Fire Service Commission (High Court, Christchurch, 24 October 2002, William Young J), where a truckie was found to be not responsible for a fire that was ignited from a blown-out tyre, because he couldn't have expected that a fire might start from such and event. (Full write-up here: http://wynnwilliams.co.nz/pub_rj_03.htm).

So if truckie Tucker was eventually found not liable for the costs of fighting a fire ignited from the rim of the vehicle he was driving, how could anyone possibly be held liable for a fire simply by being in the area?

I'm not a lawyer, and reading Government legislation is pretty hard going, so can someone cast some light on this issue?

Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1977/0052/latest/DLM442947.html

Fire Service Act 1975
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/0042/latest/DLM432648.html

I thought the case people are trying to protect themselves from was one about a hunter whose fire started a forest fire and he had to cover the costs of putting out the fire. Maybe try a search around the NZ Deerstalkers website.

I think its this clause that the insurance is for.

Recovery from person responsible for fire...

(1) Where any property has wholly or partially been destroyed or damaged by or safeguarded from an outbreak or threat of outbreak of fire, and responsibility for the outbreak is acknowledged by, or is established by action or otherwise as caused by, any person—
(a) the costs of control, restriction, suppression or extinction of the fire may be recovered from that person by the Fire Authority or the New Zealand Fire Service Commission or the eligible landholder or eligible landholders of the forest area affected, as the case may be, incurring those costs pursuant to fire control measures under this Act; and
(b) any loss in, or diminution of, value of that property, and any consequential loss or damage not too remote in law, may be recovered from that person by the owner of the property.

Perhaps you could get the insurance company to clarify this and point you to where it's mentioned in any relavent documents?

I am a member of Ruarl Fire brigade and my understanding is very simply that if you are resonsiple for the fire the cost of putting it out is yours e.g. a couple of years ago we had a large forest fire that was started from some ashes form a house fire that were not properly disposed of the property owner who had put them out was liable for the $3.7m it took to put it out. Not to mention the damage to comercial forestry

Suza's right, i too was a rural fire officer, you can only get prosecuted if they can prove you lit the fire, they will investigate if they cannot prove it. However if you are in tall dry grass or something and your exhaust lights a fire you will be liable. If you were just near a fire someone else started is just a crock of shit. From what i understand to is that if you are a member for a 4wd club that has public liability insurance you will be able to fall under their umbrella if you start a fire (accidentally)

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wtf.

From when I was logging I used to have public liability of 10 mil that had a half mil fire fighting fund
The public liability paid for damages but the fire fighting costs were seperate