http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Firefighters-watch-as-home-burns-to-the-ground-104052668.html
http://thesocietypages.org/economicsociology/2008/10/30/15/
Response to such claims?
Freedom has always been the only route to progress.
The first story is a city/town run fire department so what's to respond here to?
The second story is precisely that; a story. It sounds dubious also. A lot like the stories you hear (mostly outside the US) about how in the US, they won't treat you and let you die if you don't have insurance.
Actually, privatization of public goods has repeatedly resulted in economic, social and ethical disaster (example: England’s 18th century Acts of Enclosure, or the privatization of France’s war debt by John Law), so why are we still talking about this?
LOL...
It's unfortunate that the public firefighters did not just put the man's fire out, or allow him to pay the fee once they arrived. But just because the state slapped a price on a service does not suddenly make it a non-government regulated, private service subject to market competition.
The only complaints people can lodge against free markets is that they don't work out perfectly every time. Well, no free market has ever comitted genocide, so there's that.