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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.
Related
- WPSD: Firefighters Watch as Home Burns to the Ground
- WPSD: More Fallout Following House Fire
- USAToday: Firefighters watch house burn because owner hadn't paid $...
- MSNBC: No pay, no spray: Firefighters let home burn
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 John Crabbe on
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IT WAS WRONG! IIAF said it was wrong, FireNation said it was wrong, 90% of these replies said it was wrong.
Umm, no.
First I never seen anything from FFN stating the FF's lack of response was wrong.....FFN only supplied the article and made no opinion in the matter
The IAFF did not say the FF's lack of response was wrong....instead the IAFF condemned such a subscription policy that places such responses on communities. The IAFF stated FFs should not be placed in such position as they were here, but did not say the response by the FF's were wrong.
As for the 90% of responses....doubt that, considering many responses have been repeat. Also considering most are expressing an opinion that is not based on facts
....such as the FFs were ordered not to act and also the FFs had not Duty to Act, the homeowner did not pay his subscription, these are the facts......
morals, ethics, agree, disagree and so forth are just opinion, but would have a tough chance standing up in a legal system
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Permalink Reply by Keith Deines on
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After reading through this entire thread, the real question here for me is what would I do if I was the fire ground command officer? Council politics, FD SOP's, legal issues, potential mutiny in the ranks or bystanders for that matter, public reaction, direct orders from the chief, burning embers starting wildfires behind the fence I'm protecting? ... the list is near endless.
This has went viral and it should. This needs to be talked about at everyone's hall.
The Huffington Post thread is approaching 17,000 comments. Here is my comment, you may not like it but it's what I expect after arriving from my command officer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Keith_Deines/firefighters-watc...
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once the rigs and men were there they wouldnt help.. I cant fathom that..that goes everything I believe in when it comes to job,saying its not my duty to act is one thing if your not there but they were there,is it my duty to act if while off duty or out of state I happen across a accident or a medical emergecny no its not, but I couldnt just not help,I took an oath to protect life and property as did you.
First of all the oath I took was for my community, residents and visitors of the city. I have no duty to act on anything outside the city. I may be called for mutual aid and because of agreements with the city I thus have a duty to act outside the city if requested. Now considering we are tax based and don't have subscription services here, such a situation seen here wouldn't occur. However, the orders and regulations of my superiors does matter and I would not ignore such orders and thus freelance, even if mutual aid was requested.
An instance would be if there was a fire going on in the city and a fire came in to our neighbor of another community. Proximity may be closer for our station to go, but given the fire in the city, the orders may be to stay in the city and not go for mutual aid. Even if everyone disagreed with the decision, we follow orders. The public could stop in and ask why we aren't going because the other community is volunteer and thus a longer response. The same stuff could be said how we stayed and let the fire burn, but we followed the orders of our superiors.
In the TN case it doesn't matter what the FFs wanted to do or felt they should do...nor how we would react if in the same position...the orders trump those wants. There wasn't a life threat here and the property was not protected with a subscription, so there is no duty to act and if orders are given to let it burn, then those are the orders....like them or not, those are the orders.
As for being off duty or out of town etc, I probably would help, but I have no duty to do so. But being off duty is another thing entirely, it isn't like you will be driving around in a fire truck with capabilities to mitigate an emergency, also when the authority having jurisdiction shows up, there is no reason to stick around.
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This needs to be talked about at everyone's hall.
Keith,
And what it would come down to is the following of orders and no duty to act. The FFs here did nothing wrong, there wasn't a duty to act and there were orders given.
Where the talk lies is with the public and with the politicians. After all it was the reluctancy of the county to provide for adequate fire protection for the county. It was the county that offered a subscription service in lieu of increased taxes for protection. It was the choice of the residents of the county to keep subscription vs going to a tax based system. It was the choice of the individual homeowner whether to have such a subscription or not.
The costs involved for firefighting does add up. It costs money to properly equip FF's. It costs money to keep apparatus in good and sound repair. It costs money to train and use equipment to get proficient. It costs money for radio systems, TIC, and so forth. What is all comes down to is that such costs are distrubuted by those who use the service....if you choose not to pay, don't expect the service.
If you choose to live in a rural area, don't expect a response like FDNY.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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Long story short - the wife had a once in a lifetime opportunity so I followed her here. Never seen a So-Cal bush fire so I have no idea which one is crazier. As a city-boy, I find the whole concept of 1000 hectare bushfires terrifying.
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Permalink Reply by M.J. 6821 on
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John, I have a question this may sound stupid but if this house isnt in South Fultons response area how can they cancel the other departments that were paged there were 3 other departments that were called.
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I would imagine the reason for cancelling is because the mutual aid pact is with the dept, not the county. This means that MA probably would be called for a dire within the city limits as well and if the city dept believes there is no need for MA, they can cancel it.
So in this case, the homeowner had no agreement for fire protection with anyone. When the dept responded, the MA agreement is for that dept, and like a fire in the city, can deem MA unneccessary for the incident and thus cancel them.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Armstrong on
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I'm only speculating this MJ but they probably got canceled because of the same reason fultons crew didn't go now you would have 3 or 4 departments there putting out a fire for a guy that did not pay his subscription fee leaving their coverage areas that the tax payers live in that flip the bill for that FD in possible danger.This is only an assumption but may be an accurate one.
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Permalink Reply by Fireslayer960 on
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Sorry Tommy, but I copied and pasted this directly from this chiefs statement. I am not trying to prove you wrong, but the paid vs volunteer argument does hold weight. And this is simply not the case.
"My name is Kelly Edmison. Chief of Union City Fire Dept. Union City TN. OBION County. We are 1 of the 8 city fire dept’s in Obion County. My department is the only fully paid dept".
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Listen to the audio from the initial dispatch report. They were indeed paged out for mutual aid to the original fire, and told to stand down.
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If you listen to the audio the other 3 departments were paged for the initial house fire not the exposure. And since the house is not in anyones jurisdiction how can they have control over who can and cannot respond to a housefire in Obion county.
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Listen to the audio from the initial dispatch report. They were indeed paged out for mutual aid to the original fire, and told to stand down
So what? Mutual aid is still the agreement of the FD, not the county. If paged on the original call, that sounds like an automatic aid type of thing, either way it is still the discretion of the originating dept whether to have MA or not.
Even if MA is used, depts coming in fall under the command structure of the dept calling and are not overriding those command decisions. Meaning it is the discretion of the SFFD to have MA continue in or to cancel.
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