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Tennessee Firefighters Let Home Burn Over Subscription Issue
JASON HIBBS
WPSD
Reprinted with Permission
OBION COUNTY, Tenn. - Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won't respond, then watches it burn. That's exactly what happened to a local family tonight.
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FireEMSBlogs.com Updates
A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground.
The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning.
Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks did not pay.
The mayor said if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck.
This fire went on for hours because garden hoses just wouldn't put it out. It wasn't until that fire spread to a neighbor's property, that anyone would respond.
Turns out, the neighbor had paid the fee.
"I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong," said Gene Cranick.
Because of that, not much is left of Cranick's house.
They called 911 several times, and initially the South Fulton Fire Department would not come.
The Cranicks told 9-1-1 they would pay firefighters, whatever the cost, to stop the fire before it spread to their house.
"When I called I told them that. My grandson had already called there and he thought that when I got here I could get something done, I couldn't," Paulette Cranick.
It was only when a neighbor's field caught fire, a neighbor who had paid the county fire service fee, that the department responded. Gene Cranick asked the fire chief to make an exception and save his home, the chief wouldn't.
We asked him why.
He wouldn't talk to us and called police to have us escorted off the property. Police never came but firefighters quickly left the scene. Meanwhile, the Cranick home continued to burn.
We asked the mayor of South Fulton if the chief could have made an exception.
"Anybody that's not in the city of South Fulton, it's a service we offer, either they accept it or they don't," Mayor David Crocker said.
Friends and neighbors said it's a cruel and dangerous city policy but the Cranicks don't blame the firefighters themselves. They blame the people in charge.
"They're doing their job," Paulette Cranick said of the firefighters. "They're doing what they are told to do. It's not their fault."
To give you an idea of just how intense the feelings got in this situation, soon after the fire department returned to the station, the Obion County Sheriff's Department said someone went there and assaulted one of the firefighters.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Billy,
On August 13, 2009, the Alpena Township Fire Department in Alpena, Michigan was awarded a FIRE grant for $49,020.
According to your reasoning, THEY had a duty to protect "this guy's house". Why didn't they respond and extinguish the fire? If "Grant Recipient" equals "Duty to Act", then they didn't carry out their duty.
On the other hand, if Grant doesn't equal Duty to Act, then both Alpena Township and South Fulton had no duty to act for the Obion County non-subscriber, and so they're both OK.
And Billy, the fire department didn't "let an exposure happen". That exposure was there before the fire, it belonged to a subscriber, and the subscriber's property was protected as specified in the contract.
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Permalink Reply by Billy Lilly on
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Please exsplain to me this.
Okay i have done the math. If all the the county residents payed the fee. It would come too $988,650. So at 40 percent of residents paying. Its still $247,162.50. You divide that by 8 fire departments. That Equals out to be $30,895 to each fire department. So why is the budget only $8,000 for this fire department. So heres my question where the rest of the money going ? Becuase notice this is a fire protection fee.
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Yes. But once they do this subscription for fire protection. It means they are agreeing that its there juresdiction. Second look at my statitcs.
Okay i have done the math. If all the the county residents payed the fee. It would come too $988,650. So at 40 percent of residents paying. Its still $247,162.50. You divide that by 8 fire departments. That Equals out to be $30,895 to each fire department. So why is the budget only $8,000 for this fire department. So heres my question where the rest of the money going ? Becuase notice this is a fire protection fee.
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Billy,
Your math isn't anywhere near correct because most of the county residents don't pay the subscription fees. Some of the fire departments extinguish county fires anyway, which means that the few that subscribe are paying the freight for everyone else around them, but not generating the revenue that you mistakenly assume they get.
The Union City chief's comments include the fact that most of the county residents don't pay the subscription fee. Some of the fire departments extinguish every fire anyway. Some don't.
The "extinguish every fire" policy is keeping the revenue stream low.
Here's the most important point. South Fulton and the other cities can spend their revenues - taxes, fees, and county fire subscriptions any way they wish. If they don't chose to spend it on the fire department but they still provide fire protection, that's between those cities and their subscribers.
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Actually, Billy, the unincorporated areas of Obion County are most definately out of the city of South Fulton's jurisdiction.
What part of "Their jurisdiction stops at the city limits" don't you understand?
That's why their only obligation outside their jurisdiction is to their paid subscribers.
That kind of fire protection is "contract" fire protection.
If Obion County's unincorporated areas were within South Fulton's jurisdiction, South Fulton would just bill them fire taxes like they do for the city residents.
They don't, because it's illegal for the city of South Fulton to tax people outside their jurisdiction - including the Cranicks.
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Philly - it's like the Chilean miner rescue - you keep drilling and drilling, and eventually you may break through, not matter how thick the obstacle between the surface and, well, you know...
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Insanity; doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time.
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Billy,
Look down...to the post where I discuss the Union City fire chief's statements that most of the county residents don't pay the fire subscription fees.
You're asking the location of money that doesn't exist.
Do the math. When you count with imaginary money, where did it go?
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It's like watching the gerbil running in the tubular Ferris Wheel - the results may not change, but it can be mesmerizing...
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Maybe they were expecting Alpena Township to respond from Michigan because they were awarded a FIRE grant, too.
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Ben actually if its a fire fee. They cant spend it how ever they want. It's called fraud. They are frauding the county residents. Becuase when you pay a fire fee. You are paying to help support the fire department. Not for whatever else the town wants to spend it on.
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Ben you say they can spend fire fee money how ever they want. Just some info for you. it's caslled fraud when they do this.
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