[jeffkrol]

Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.

Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat.

"They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

"We wasn't on their list," he said the operators told him.

Cranick, who lives outside the city limits, admits he "forgot" to pay the annual $75 fee. The county does not have a county-wide firefighting service, but South Fulton offers fire coverage to rural residents for a fee.

Cranick says he told the operator he would pay whatever is necessary to have the fire put out.

His offer wasn't accepted, he said.

The fire fee policy dates back 20 or so years.

"Anybody that's not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it's a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don't," said South Fulton Mayor David Crocker.

Firefighters did eventually show up, but only to fight the fire on the neighboring property, whose owner had paid the fee.

No pay, no spray: Firefighters let home burn - U.S. news - Life - msnbc.com

[Parallax]

I'll bet lawyers are lined up around the block for this one.
I would think there should be a criminal charge of reckless endangerment as well.

[Leaf Fan]

I would think there should be a criminal charge of reckless endangerment as well.

What, to charge the grandson who started the fire beside the house?

[jeffkrol]

More:
Video: Firefighters let home burn to the ground because owner didn?t pay annual $75 fee - Story Analysis by BuzzBox
Policy implemented in 2000
apparently same thing happened in 2008.. let it burn.
Can't wait to see his ins (IF they have any) reject the claim........ Gotta love us...

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Last edited by jeffkrol; 10-05-2010 at 11:38 AM.

[Parallax]

What, to charge the grandson who started the fire beside the house?

No, I was thinking more of the firefighters and/or dispatchers who let a fire burn out of control in an inhabited are. Fire can be dangerous, you know.
The other issue is funding. If the FD has ever accepted Federal money then I think as far as culpability goes they may be, excuse the pun, hosed.

[jeffkrol]

American and Proud | Political opinion and hard hitting analysis of all things American
I like the last photo.. nice wood work......
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9245518
BTW: pretty scary.........
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html?_r=1

Published: June 28, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 27 - The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm, even a woman who had obtained a court-issued protective order against a violent husband making an arrest mandatory for a violation.

The decision, with an opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia and dissents from Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, overturned a ruling by a federal appeals court in Colorado. The appeals court had permitted a lawsuit to proceed against a Colorado town, Castle Rock, for the failure of the police to respond to a woman's pleas for help after her estranged husband violated a protective order by kidnapping their three young daughters, whom he eventually killed

Back to Obion:
http://troy.troytn.com/Obion%20County%20Fire%20Department%20Presentation%20P...Commission.pdf

On January 19, 1987, the Obion County Commission passed a resolution establishing an
Obion County Fire Department, but no action was taken to implement the resolution.
Therefore, Obion County has a county fire department on paper, but is unmanned,
unfunded and not operational.
Currently there are 8 municipal departments in Obion County which are providing fire
protection for most of Obion County’s rural areas. These departments are
• Hornbeak Fire Department
• Kenton Fire Department
• Obion Fire Department
• Rives Fire Department
• Samburg Fire Department
• South Fulton Fire Department
• Troy Fire Department
• Union City Fire Department
In addition, the Obion County Rescue Squad responds to rural grass and vehicle fires in
designated areas. There are currently areas of Obion County which rely on fire
departments from outside Obion County for their fire protection (Ridgely Fire Department
from Lake County, Trimble Fire Department from Dyer County, and Sidonia Fire
Department from Weakley County), and there is approximately 15 square miles of
southwestern Obion County which has no fire protection.
Three (3) of the municipal departments are offering services on a subscription basis, and
five (5) municipal departments are offering services on an as needed basis without
subscription or ability to pay for response. The municipal fire departments which utilize a
subscription service are not bound to and do not respond to fires on rural properties which
do not have a subscription for fire service. The only rural property owners guaranteed to
receive fire protection services are those who choose to pay for it. It they choose not to
purchase an annual subscription and require fire protection services, they fall on the mercy
of a municipal department who provide services on an as needed basis. When such
occurs, the responding fire department normally provides those services without
compensation.
According to survey information, over 75% of all municipal fire department’s structure calls
are rural. All fire departments in Obion County charge a $500.00 fee per call in rural areas,
but collections are, less than 50% and the fire departments have no way of legally
collecting the charge.

In case anyone gets bored.. the comment section is a hoot.........
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2010/10/05/the-ethics-of-letting-someo...y_bookman_blog

[larryinlc]

The last thing I want my local fire fighters doing after receiving a 911 call is first checking with the county clerk to see if the the caller has paid up dues. I would like to believe that they would concentrate only on the fire at hand. This type of pay for protection does not seem to be a good idea.

Larry

[Parallax]

This type of pay for protection does not seem to be a good idea.

Larry

Maybe not a good idea, but it's worked for the Chicago PD and Mayor's Office for decades.

[mikemike]

What does this story have to do with capitalism? The fire department is not a private fire fighting force, they do not operate for a private profit, decisions regarding production (which fire department services properties outside of city limits) were planned by the government rather than market forces.

It would be more accurate to title this thread "Socialism and the fire department."

[mithrandir]

The Fire Department in question is a city fire department (not county). They are responsible to fighting city fires on the city resident's dime. The household in question is in the county (outside the fire department's jurisdiction). To help county residents, the local city fire departments offer fire fighting services to nontax paying residents of the county for a fee. No one would expect an insurance company that you do not pay premiums to pay for the loss of your house. Similarly, why would people who do not pay taxes or premiums to a fire department expect them to protect their property? By the way, the household that lost their house declined both a written bill and a phone call follow up to provide the fire services for a $75 per year fee.

[jeffkrol]

Think Progress After Firefighters Watched Home Burn, Obion County Expands Subscription-Only Fire Service To More Towns
Borders on extortion....

Now, local news station ABC 7 is reporting that the Obion County Budget Committee met last night and has decided to expand the subscription-only fire service to additional towns. The station reports that the committee “passed an agreement yesterday to give all communities in the county the option of paying a subscription” to purchase fire service — essentially expanding the service that stood by and watched as the Cranick family’s home burned to the ground...................Union City Fire Department Chief Kelly Edmison objects to the new expansion, saying that “the best option is a true fire tax. It eliminates this having 911 or whoever check to say, ‘Are they covered or not covered?’ The last thing a firefighter wants to do is to not be able to help when they’d like to.” According to documents prepared by the county in 2008, a paltry 0.13 cent increase in property taxes on each household would be all it would take to fund fire services for the towns within the county.

[Nesster]

In other words, while the fire department is socialized within the city, outside of its jurisdiction it offers services via the free market. As a rational participant in the free market the house owner made the risk/reward calculation that $75 per year was too much to pay for fire department coverage. He is free to choose that, or to find someone else willing to provide the service for less money. Having made his choice, he properly bears the consequence.

This free market / libertarian interpretation ignores a truth here: that the average American is conditioned to expect certain services 'for free', i.e. in a socialized manner.

I wonder if another free market loss now accrues: I'd be surprised if his homeowner's insurance policy paid off on the fire, given that he had not paid for fire department coverage. If we ignore the fact that most of us don't have the time or attention span to track down every ramification of every decision we make, we are left with the free market outcome that this guy probably paid for insurance for years, and will get little or no benefit from the coverage, due to his own action.

[jeffkrol]

funny, firemen used to pay for their own supplies and would do it "for the common good"....how things twist and turn.

The Union Fire Company was an association for mutual assistance. Each member agreed to furnish, at his own expense, six leather buckets and two stout linen bags, each marked with his name and the name of the company, which he was to bring to every fire.

Union Fire Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Parallax]

funny, firemen used to pay for their own supplies and would do it "for the common good"....how things twist and turn.

Union Fire Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here in South Dakota we are a little more progressive than that, but not much. We have only 3 paid fire departments in the state, the rest are volunteer. In the mid to late 60s there was a TV series that, although a comedy, was actually a pretty accurate documentary about South Dakota. It was called "Green Acres". Not much has changed.

[Leaf Fan]

The moral of the story: if you want to burn your garbage rather than disposing of it in some other manner, then it might be a good idea to pay the $75 for fire protection.