[estimator7292]

It shouldn't be an out of pocket cost unless the fire department isn't publicly funded.

This is what taxes are for. You pay your locality tax, you get service from the fire department. If some plot of land within city limits doesn't have infrastructure for firefighting, that's the city's problem. If a plot of land can't be serviced by firefighters, it shouldn't be zoned and permitted for residential construction.

[seanmcdirmid]

Fire departments are funded via property taxes, and prop 13 messes up what per house pays. They probably have no choice but to charge home owners for improvements that would typically come from property taxes due to dumb decisions made by Reaganites 50 years ago, but at least they have cheap property taxes