The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
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
-
Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
-
Herb, the difference is that I don't use fallacious arguments to make my point and you do.
I don't cut and paste - I post links to my sources.
You cut and paste someone else's definitions and descriptions without attribution, as if they were your own - you plagerized that content, and you did it while trying to make it look like the fallacies you used were more credible.
The differecne is that I don't use someone else's information pasted as if it's mine.
That's highly unethical.
The biggest irony of all is that you ride in here on your high horse and prclaim that your way is the only MORAL way to approach this incident - arrogantly assuming that anyone who disagrees is wrong.
So, after using false logic, plagerizing the work of others, and stating at least one thing about me that is patently false, you still think you are either in the right or are credible?
The "get over yourself" would be more appropriately directed back to yourself.
And...learn how to debate honestly and how to attribute other people's work before you start cramming your distorted moralization down everyone else's throat.
-
-
Robert,
Look up the Public Administration concept of Free Riders.
The homeowner tried to get a free ride with others paying for it.
How can you defend that?
Don't you think would be unethical to give that homeowner free fire suppression when his neighbors paid for it?
It would be within South Fulton's right to say that they are not going to provide ANY fire protection outside the city limits. In this case, they did exactly what their out-of-jurisdiction contract specified and protected their client.
The homeowner didn't do his fair share, then expected free services, based on a bad gamble. He has no one but himself to blame.
-
-
It wasn't a county-owned fire truck. The fire department is the City of South Fulton, who responded to an unicorporated area in Obion County where they had contract subscribers.
The county has NO fire trucks.
-
Permalink Reply by Billy Lilly on
-
I want to respond to somthing you said. Once they show up on a fire secne yes there liable. It is in Nfpa. So this guy can sue. Becuase this fire department has to go by NFPA STANMDARDS OR THERE NOT A FIRE DEPARTMENT. jUST A LITTLE INFO FOR YOU. i have been The website odf that fire department. Tell me how you're Fire Chief is quailfied to be a chief..
-
Permalink Reply by Robert jacobs on
-
Ben Im not going to look up anything I see free riders on the system every work day, I could care less my job is to serve when needed.If South Fulton doesnt respond out of town OK fine dont go,if they go out of town for paid clients as you call them great,but they looked at that man and said NO and they were allready there throwing water and geared up and they said NO and you rise a question of ethics to me about who payed for what..those guys were there... I cant believe you so called Firemen cant see that,who am I talking with all Chiefs you guys all talk about payments,contracts,jurisdictions,freelanceing,orders blah blah blah.The fact will remain the same for me, those guys were there.. they looked at him and they said...no.
-
-
And Robert, they said "no" appropriately and by the rules.
I noticed that you didn't answer my questions.
Why is that?
And your statement about "...so called Fireman..." is B.S.
You're just insisting that your way is the only way to look at it.
I see your point - I just disagree with it, because you're not looking at the big picture.
Apparently you're OK with no one taking responsibility for fire protection in the community as a whole. Where do you think the money to provide that protection comes from? It doesn't come from unfairly providing free fire protection to a free rider - or freeloader.
Your refusal to educate yourself on the rest of the issues speaks volumes...
-
Permalink Reply by GARY HANSON on
-
The major blame for this fiasco goes way back. The County commissioners had a chance to establish a rural VFD but were blaming the raising of taxes for inaction. Something should have been done, mainly to avoid this very thing. They had no guts to pursue that that time but now, after a tragedy strikes, it seems like they are going to make another attempt. Hope they ones who sat on their hands several years ago have nightmares about their lack of action.
-
-
Ben I can tell you are a educated man, probably more then myself judging by the way write with your condescending tone,but I think you need to read my reply again my friend I said if they dont go fine then dont go follow your rules my Fireman statement was made to the fact that they did nothing while on secene and I was trained that we dont just not do anything and to answer you question fine there freeloaders all over are what do you want.
-
Permalink Reply by Fireslayer960 on
-
Robert,
You are right, the condescending tone, the insults, the cheap shots, all of it, lead me to believe that here truly stands a man that did not join the fire service out of compassion for his fellow man, but a guy looking for a paycheck. Fact is Ben, IT WAS WRONG! IIAF said it was wrong, FireNation said it was wrong, 90% of these replies said it was wrong. But hey, dont let me be the one to set fire to your soap box, please,,continue,,,,,
-
Permalink Reply by Richard Armstrong on
-
This is crazy!Nothing is getting resolved here it's all just guys getting upset.fact is that they did what there policy states and what they were told to do by their bosses.It would be really nice if someone from that department would come on here and explain to the guys who aren't getting the whole rule thing to them.I could throw another "what if" at some of the guys who aren't getting it.What if they did go after being told no and one of the citizens inside the city that pays the taxes to run that department had a house fire and they called for help and they lost teir house or a life because they were off putting out buddies house that did not pay and purposley didn't pay because he assumed that they would just come anyway Then who would be in trouble?
-
-
We could bounce this "What if" game back and forth all night! What if this homeowner was a farmer who had toxic chemicals stored, and it ended up sending a toxic cloud out? How many people would that affect? Like I said in a previous reply, we ALL follow the same guildlines, Dispatch calls, we go. We do a scene size up and extinguish the fire. THEN any issues of billing, disobeying orders, or anything else that comes into play, are handled BACK at the firehouse!
One other note, If you listen to the dispatch call, there was mutual aid paged out also, they were told to stand down. So the, "What about another fire" issue is moot
-
Permalink Reply by Keith Deines on
-
No I would disagree, the responding FD did not do the moral thing, it enacted the business approach for whatever reasons.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
