Menlo fire district renews SLAC contract

I guess I am at a loss..... I am all about getting additional funding from businesses, but is it a standard in CA to charge for a fire response / Contract to respond? What if SLAC did not pay - would MPFD not respond?
My reason for the questions: Where does the line get put in the sand? Meaning do all businesses start paying, next do homeowners? We have seen that on news where homeowners in other states have not and the fire dept will not respond to their house for a fire....
So the question is - who created the clause of how much and why? This article lacks basic information

SLAC's fire services were previously provided by Palo Alto Fire which serves Palo Alto and the non-SLAC portions of Stanford. The current arrangement is a win-win for both SLAC and the citizens of the Fire District. Stanford and SLAC do not pay property taxes and hence would otherwise contribute nothing to the cost of fire services

Years ago all of the fire agencies in San Mateo County agreed to drop their geographical boundaries and now every call for service is responded to by the closest in-service fire station.
Out of District calls under this system are not reimbursed but part of a mutual aid system where the fire agencies help each other and the aid goes both ways. In SLAC's case they do not have their own fire agency to participate in such mutual aid agreement so they contracted with MPFPD.

Peter - Thank you. Great explanation. When can we put you in place as content Editor?

Thank you Peter. Excellent info.