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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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- 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 Billy Lilly on
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Okay ben. I did a little research. They recived a federal grant in 2006. So yes they do have a duty to protect this guys house. Second they let an exsposure happen to someone who had payed there fee.
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Actually 2005. $25,000.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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How does that obligate them to protect an out of jurisdiction house? I could see if they built a USAR team with it, or some other bit of national infrastructure, but I believe these grants are for local fire protection.
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Read all the details for this grant. Read what it states. To recive a grant and eligble. Its a fema grant. Second it isnt a out of juristiction. When the guy next door is paying for fire protection. Which he didnt recive addquate fire protection. When he had exsposures.
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Fair enough. Do you have a link to the grant, or type of grant?
I don't believe this department had any agreement with the county beyond subscribing members, but you already knew that.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Billy:
Why would the fire department want to do fundraisers in a county where only 40 percent pay their subscriptions?
It's clear to me that they don't want to fund their fire protection, so why should the good hearted firefighters spend their time raising money for people who won't even help themselves?
And if they won't plunk down the money for a fee, why would you think they would buy something else from the fire department?
I wouldn't ask the guys to waste their time.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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They recived a federal grant in 2006. So yes they do have a duty to protect this guys house. Second they let an exsposure happen to someone who had payed there fee....
How does receiving a grant make it so to protect property outside one's jurisdiction? We have applied for and received grants and in none of them were an indication of using that money outside of the dept, because that is what you have here, the guy without a subscription is outside of the FD jurisdiction for the most part.
As for exposures, c'mon, they let the exposure happen? No, the FD responded because the owner of the exposure DID pay a subscription.
Read all the details for this grant. Read what it states. To recive a grant and eligble. Its a fema grant. Second it isnt a out of juristiction. When the guy next door is paying for fire protection. Which he didnt recive addquate fire protection. When he had exsposures.
Perhaps, post the grant details here.....especially the part where it specifically states there is a duty to protect property outside one's jurisdiction. (the property in question did not pay the subscription, which means they did not wish to pay for fire protection, which in turns means no duty to protect said property by the FD, which means it is outside the FD jurisdiction.)
Actually 2005. $25,000.
This grant is 5 years old and $25,000 is really not a lot of money in the grand sceme of things. It also depends upon what the grant was used for, such as the purchase and replacement of gear, equipment, radios, etc. Also grants are for the dept in which applied and not the areas not protected by the dept. Unless the grant specifically states that non-subscribers are equally protected, the receiving of the grant means nothing in this debate.
Again, the guy next door DID receive adequate fire protection, his home is still standing, is it not? It is because he called that the FD arrived and exposures were protected. Insinuating that there is inadequate fire protection based solely on exposure issues is ridiculous.
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South Fulton Fire Department South Fulton TN Operations and Safety $56,117.00 Equipment ($15,000)
Personal Protective Equipment ($44,070) 10/28/05
South Roane County Volunteer Fire Department Kingston TN Operations and Safety $111,424.00 Personal Protective Equipment ($117,288) 12/02/05
http://www.firegrantsupport.com/content/html/afg/SearchAwards.aspx?...
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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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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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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Billy, South Fulton got the grant for CITY fire protection. Obion County is not eligible for FEMA grants, because they don't have a fire department.
South Fulton is not obligated to provide ANY fire protection in the county except to their contracted subscribers.
South Fulton is primarily funded by their city, not the county.
What I don't understand is that you keep confusing the two jurisdictions as if they're the same thing when they are obviously completely seperate.
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Permalink Reply by WestPhilly on
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Ben,
One of you probably needs to be piss-tested. And if you keep responding to Billy........................?
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