Disclosure

How Tri-State Fire Guide earns money

This is a commercial site, and we would rather explain the business model than have you guess it. Here is every way it earns or could earn, in one place.

Paid quote-request delivery

Participating service providers pay a fee for quote requests delivered to them that match the work and locations they asked to receive. The pilot terms — including what counts as a billable, qualified request and how duplicates or invalid requests are credited — are agreed with each company in writing. The practical meaning for you: the request form is free to use, goes only to the companies you select, and never changes what the directory says about anyone.

An inquiry is an introduction, not a booking. We are not a party to any contract between you and a provider, we take no cut of any job, and we do not warrant any provider’s work.

Sponsorships

Once the site has meaningful traffic we may sell clearly labeled sponsored placements — an expanded profile in a relevant service/area section. Every sponsored placement is marked as advertising, and its factual claims meet the same source-and-date standard as every other listing. We may begin with either a referral-fee arrangement or a sponsorship pilot, not a complicated combination of subscriptions, auctions, and exclusivity.

What is always free

• Listing in the directory, based on the official record.
• Corrections — factual fixes are made without payment, with a new check date.
• The quote-request form and the comparison organizer.

What we will not do

• Charge for accuracy, favorable credential wording, or suppression of problems.
• Sell rankings or ratings. We do not rank providers.
• Distribute your contact information to anyone other than the companies you selected.
• Publish sponsored content that looks like our editorial voice — paid placements are labeled, per the FTC’s guidance on making advertising identifiable.

Affiliate links

Current status: none. If we ever recommend equipment or products with affiliate links, the links will be marked and this page will name the programs. The core business is connecting businesses with providers, not clicks.

Questions about any of this: hello@tristatefire.org. This policy follows the FTC’s Endorsement Guides: material connections must be disclosed, and advertising must be identifiable as advertising.