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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 Vic Silverfish on
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Heck, let's assume the towns squander 100% of the subscription money on hookers and blow, but still provide fire protection. That's their prerogative. The County residents are free at any time to stop outsourcing and stand up their own departments.
Discussing the budget and trying to show that the town wastes subscription money is a total red herring. It has no bearing on weather the fire department was justified in letting this property burn. Would it have been OK to let the property burn if you could show 100% of the fire subscription money went to the fire department?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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"You can write all it off, but where does that get you? What have you gained?"
That's another mistake on your part. I'm not trying to gain anything from this. I'm simply defending the people who did the right thing and who are being unfairly targeted by misplaced blame like yours.
As far as human decency and kindness, I've been in this business long enough to understand the concept of triage. Triage is used when the problems exceed the system's ability to deal with all of them. South Fulton had to triage one non-subscriber's property against their statutory responsibilities to their city's citizens and their contractual responsibilies to their county subscribers in order to protect the long term Greater Good.
While you may not like "Sucks to be you", that is certainly a better option than "Sucks to be us." Despite your protestations, what you are telling me is that you don't like "Sucks to be you" but that you're willing to take the risk that "Sucks to be you" will lead directly to "Sucks to be us".
And here's the thing that you missed in that holier-than-thou, faux moralization you continue to pound here...
It's already been me and people that I love. Over and over and over.
I've buried several of them. I doubt you've heard of them. One of them was a member of a subscription fire department who was killed fighting a fire in a non-subscriber's home, as the result of an arson-for-profit fire.
You have absolutely no room to tell me about me and mine.
Doing so is additional evidence of your ignorance.
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Billy,
It has been explained to you over and over.
If you can't understand it by now, we can't help you.
The public outcry has been caused by people who are either ignorant of the real situation in Obion County, or by people who want to posture either politically or personally.
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Permalink Reply by Fireslayer960 on
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Chief Edmisson also stated that they would have extinguished that fire.
By the way Ben, Just what exactly is it that you have against "Straw hats"? LOL, just kidding.
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Permalink Reply by Billy Lilly on
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Actually i got the 40% from someone who is defending what happend. So i'm just going by what he says. If i'm wrong on my figures on how many pay. Then please tell me what the percent that pays. Since you know.
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WELL! If thats the case, are they hiring? You can keep the dope, but could you go into detail about the women? lol
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"I did none of those things." That's more bovine feces.
When you made the comment about Tennesseans going to church and wearing WWJD bracelets, that was ridicule of religion.
When you attacked me personally instead of debating the idea, that is the textbook definition of an ad hominem personal attack.
When you claim that everything I said was "fiscal" and repeated it after I showed specifics that were not fiscal, those are generalizations.
In other words, you demonstrably did all three of the things you deny doing. That fits hand-in-hand with your faux moralizing.
There is shame here. It is yours and yours alone. Your lack of understanding of the big picture is appalling.
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Intentional blindness will do that to you.
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Here is another point that amazes me, that nobody has brought up. Ok, you saw the video right? You see the guy jumping into the officers seat on the truck, and in the background, you see flame, not smoldering ruins, but flame, and these guys are leaving? If I was the PAID subscriber, I would be pissed! They are darned luck that it didnt travel back to the fence line and start the subscribers property on fire again!
And yet another point. I have, like most of you have, worked a whole lot of grass and brush fires. Something sounds real fishy in the fact that it burned for two hours, before reaching the house? And nobody could extinguish it with a garden hose? Sure, I understand, it took out the shed first but, For two hours?
And lastly, it was not the homeowner who started the burning barrel, it was his grandson, who then went into the house to take a shower.
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...and Jack, and Vic, and Art, and FETC, and several others who have actually looked at the entire situation and checked out some basic factual information before they posted things that are demonstrably non-factual.
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Yes you did. You blamed me.
You're really not going for a high level of honesty here, are you?
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