INDIANAPOLIS -- A 6News investigation into fire fees after a New Castle family was billed nearly $28,000 when their home burned is prompting debate at the Statehouse.

Legislators said they want to keep volunteer fire departments solvent in the face of declining tax revenues but some have expressed outrage over excessive fees being charged to Hoosier families.

6News' Joanna Massee first began investigating the issue nearly a year ago after Brian and Darline Fairchild received an bill from the Cadiz/Harrison Volunteer Fire Department detailing charges for the water firefighters drank at the scene and refilling firefighters' oxygen tanks, along with the billing company's 22 percent fee.

Robert Blackford with Brownsburg-based Emergency Services Billing Corp. said at the time that a federal environmental law -- the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA -- allowed the company to charge unlimited fees for house fires and car crashes.

A bill now before the House Public Safety Committee would cap fees at $500.

"Why are we taxing the public to provide a fire service and then we're sending a bill for thousands of dollars and have, you know, charges per hour for the truck?" asked Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville.

But volunteer fire departments said their shrinking tax bases don't pay for everything and that they spend many weekends out trying to raise money.

"The budgets, the contracts doesn't supply enough funds, in many cases, for us to operate," said Larry Curl of the Volunteer Firefighters Association.

As for Emergency Services Billing, which sends out invoices for more than 100 volunteer fire departments, a representative Tuesday defended the company's often hefty service charge.

"It's very, very time consuming and takes a lot of research. It takes a lot of intellectual time," said spokesman Alan Keen.

But some lawmakers said they also take issue with the language in the bills that fire victims said they view as threatening, such as a warning not to go around the company and contact the fire department about the bill.

Those fire departments disavow any knowledge of what's in the letters and Curl confirmed that the departments are not part of the billing operation.

When 6News' Norman Cox asked Curl if it was negligent to let the letters go out without knowing what's in them, he replied, "Well, you know, I think it's negligent on the part that they don't get an opportunity to see them."

The company's letters also fail to mention that the fire department will generally accept whatever the person's insurance provides, usually $500.

Lawmakers said they will continue to analyze the bill.