It's a bullshit story the american media is using to wage an argument against the free market economies ability to deal with this sort of shit.

This guys claim to fire protection services was denied by the government of whatever piece of shit town he lives in, not "the market." But they're all trying to make it a market issue, as if some magic capitalistic fire-engine should have appeared out of fairyland put out the fire on this poor ****s house.

Well, why should there be? It's not like their isn't a public monopoly on fire services is there?

If any other free market emergency service is any reasonable indication, they wouldn't have sat outside asking for payment while this guys house turned into burnt cinders (like they did in this exact event), they would have put the ****er out and billed him.