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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 Michael Stewart on
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You dismantle my opinion and try to prove me wrong,... it's just MY opinion. Doesn't matter that you bullet point your answers nor does it make you right or make the issue right. The act of not acting to someone's house on fire and watching it burn is wrong regardless of where you live. And yes I do have the facts right I quote"A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground." It's in the article you read it as it's written. But again, it's my opinion and yours is as valid although opposite of mine.
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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Wrong Russ, it was not in their city, does your department go driving off to other locations when not called by another fire department and put fires out. I do not think so. If another dept. does not call your chief would you just take the engine ane drive off to some location out of you jurisdiction? I do not think so. Get real, Sam is as far out in left field as you are.
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Permalink Reply by Thomas R Crisp on
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If this Fire Department has received any funds from the State or the Federal Govt, I see a law suite in their ( and the City) near future.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Michael,
My reply was a grounded response to your otherwise emotional response. The issues I highlighted and responded about was taking a rational approach to the emotions you were making. When you talked about lawsuits, the fact remains there was no duty to act, pretty tough to make the case. When you remarked with "what ifs" those were countered as well.
You made the reply about Americans just looking out for themselves or money and tried to put a national healthcare spin in etc, of which doesn't apply here. This was not a tax based service, the dept that responded was from another community and had no obligation to act.
As for neighbors being furious, so what, the response the dept made was appropriate. There was no duty to act, the firefighters followed orders, legally the dept did nothing wrong. Perhaps now, because of this issue, the focus will thus become a tax based service instead of subscriptions. Whatever does come about isn't the firefighter's responsibility but the elected officials.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Sam, I call B.S. on your claim that the South Fulton firefighters "...are not firefighters."
They did exactly what their local policy tells them to do.
Obion County doesn't have a fire deparemtnt, and the City of South Fulton FD only responds out of jurisdiction for subscribers with whom they have a valid contract.
The homeowner in question intentionally didn't get a subscription contract and he got exactly what he knowingly paid for - no fire protection.
It was not the South Fulton FD's job to extinguish that fire.
Do you pay taxes for fire protection and expect a neighboring jurisdiction with no fire department to get your town's tax-funded services for free? Neither do the citizens of South Fulton, TN.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Teller on
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I can't tell you what a dept. in my state would do if we even had this kind of situation. But your gonna tell me that you as a human being and a firefighter would not feel like you needed to do something in that incident? There doesn't have to be a human life at risk but still - the house is on fire and your a firefighter...do you see the connection? If not I have crayons and construction paper and I will gladly mail you a picture. So he was a fool and decided to be different and not pay. Probably was a typical guy and said to himself, "That'll never happen to this house, I've made this a safe fortress". Well when the place caught fire I'm sure within seconds he learned his lesson. Like another member posted earlier, there are lawyers for this kind of thing. Let the guys put out the flames and I'm sure over time something could have been worked out. As someone as young as 32 years old, I've done volunteer firefighting and Ems work as well as being an active duty Marine for 9 years and now a cop for the past 4 years. I learned over the years sometimes you have to know when to make decisions that go against the rules but in a tactful way to accomplish a job.
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Permalink Reply by Karr Quintero on
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just got back from a mutual aid call on a subscriber, anyone eles here work today? lol
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Eric,
This wasn't a case about mutual aid. The community is tasked with providing public services, how it does that is up to the community. Most places have their own dept, be it volly, combination, or career, with many mutual aid or auto aid agreements. Some communities contract with a neighboring community, district, or county dept and residents pay a tax. In this case, the community decided to keep taxes low, the onus of fire protection falls on the residents. The nearby city has a dept that will respond if there is the obligation....which means those who pay the subscription have an expectation of services. Those who don't pay, don't have that expectation.
Now as for the "right thing to do"...the responsibilty of the fire dept is to the community it serves, not other communities. A mutual or automatic aid agreement is still the community sharing resources, meaning the services are funded by taxes, fees, etc and is a way to provide manpower and equipment, without the financial burden of doing all on their own.
Without mutual or auto agreements, there is no responsibility for one community to send their resources to another. As such residents paying for said services shouldn't have to expect their services to be utilized for free because another resident doesn't want to pay.
Also regarding "the right thing to do" the right thing to do would be to not lay off firefighters...yet we see that happening. Budgets are real and realistically it costs money to provide services, even in rural volunteer depts, there is still a cost.
Is the "right thing to do" also mean I should pay for someone's auto repair after an accident because I chose to have insurance and they didn't? The "right thing to do" may be doing everything for free, but there are still costs involved. Maybe the "right thing to do" is provide cable/satellite for everyone for free.
Actually the "right thing to do" is to accept responsibilty for actions or lack thereof. The "right thing to do" is ensure personal responsibility. If you choose to drink and drive and get arrested, your responsibility. You choose to speed and not buckle up and are ejected, your responsibility, You choose to NOT pay your bill or not have insurance and something happens, it is your responsibilty.
No Eric, everything in this country isn't just me, me, me.....a bigger problem is the lack of responsibility or accountability for personal actions. It is too easy to point fingers....just difficult to point the one back at yourself.
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Actually John, not true about the last paragraph, many of the Marines I served with had to make decisions based on what was going on directly in front of them while going against orders given to them by higher ups. One case being a helicopter pilot that after asking his crew first, put his huey down in the middle of a fire fight so his crew chief could save a wounded Marine. Not in every situation can you ignore orders, but when intervention must take place, some cases call for action and explaination later.
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Permalink Reply by Billy Lovell (Skinny) on
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I have a few FACTs to add to this post. I am a firefighter accross the state line from this department and three of our fireman are firefighters for this department and they are paid per call. The City is tax basr fire protection and they provide fire coverage to the county for people theat wish to pay a very small fee. The county has made a efforts to get fire coverage to that area and the only people that ever show up to the meetings are the people that do not want there taxes to go up. The last thing the county offered was a tax that would make the property tax go up $50.00 per property that a person owns. All the Fireman at the department did not like to watch a house burn but all they could do is fallow the orders they were givin. The other thing that has not made the news as much as the fire is the fact that the grandson came to the fire station and assulted the fire Chief. I am not going to keep going on this so take the facts and then make your on judgement.
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Also question we are tought to assume there maybe still someone inside a house until we do a primary search so how could this dept have been so sure there was no one in this house??? This aint a what if question this is a fact !!!!
The fire was burning for awhile, which means by the time the FD did show up, the chance of a savable life is not there.
And if you dont consider tyhe what ifs your not a a good firefighter or chief officer!!! And if you dont have answers to what if questions your not a good firefighter!
Difference is to the context of those "what ifs". This is not about me on a fireground in my city where I do have a duty to act and can ask what ifs and ascertain an answer. You are asking what ifs regarding the dept here and the policy enacted by elected officials. As I responded earlier, life is going to trump money....which is why the what ifs you are making don't apply. There was no life threat here, this was not a motor vehicle accident, etc, in the end, the what ifs you are making have been answered.
And if that had happened in my county then a person could sue the fire dept for not doing nothing!!
And my bet is that in your county the residents pay taxes for the service instead of a subscription as the case here.
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