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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 M.J. 6821 on
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Ok since the homeowner was not in their coverage area how can they cancel other departments thats my question. The other 3 departments were called initially with South Fulton and since it's in the rural setting there is really no coverage how can one department cancel everyone else.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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The other 3 departments were called initially with South Fulton and since it's in the rural setting there is really no coverage how can one department cancel everyone else.
MJ,
It seems Tommy and I are responding at the same time here, but the question about MA was answered a few responses above this in response to fireslayer.
However, regarding this aspect, it sounds like the county is broken up into districts and SFFD had the district where this fire occurred. Meaning if the owner pays for a subscription, the nearest dept is called, I'm highly doubting that a subscription will actually contract directly with another FD.
So since MA may be more of an automatic aid, it is still the discrection of the dept who has their coverage area to keep MA rolling or cancel them.
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Gary:
Do you get the feeling that we have participants who aren't checking the other posts or aren't even going to the links that have been provided?
The fire department is the easy target here, because, by God, they have video of them, but we can't seem to find any video of the many meetings that have been held over the years of the county board doing absolutely nothing to improve the delivery of fire protection in the county.
It FINALLY comes out that the fire departments want a valid revenue stream for funding and the "real firemen" STILL want to blame the fire department.
People can be so full of themselves sometimes.
You GET it.
TCSS.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Davis on
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Gentleman, i am a captain in this county with the hornbeak fire dept. our fire depts have divided the county into 8 districts. sffd was inside there district and cancelled auto aid due to them being a non member. the auto aid depts confirmed with dispatch and cancelled. 5 out of the eight go to everything thats on fire without subscriptions. we cant keep doing this for free. we are telling the county a fire fee will be best that way everyones covered. the county wants all depts to do subscriptions because they dont want to raise taxes.
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Ok Tommy and John I have another question for you. If I remember correctly South Fulton will also send a bill for $500 after the fact so thats another reason why this just doesnt sit right with me. I understand that they have to follow orders I'm not disputing that fact but if they are going to bill anyway why not just double the subscription fee and put the bill at $650. Considering from some news reports I have read the owner offered to pay it. And also I have heard many people say that there was no life safety issue here so there was no need to respond but I think someone thats not trained trying to put out a fire before it gets to his house with a garden hose and even once it gets to his house that does sound like a life safety issue to me.
I will say I'm not completely against what they did because they have orders but there are also questions that I have that make this very unsettling to me.
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we are telling the county a fire fee will be best that way everyones covered. the county wants all depts to do subscriptions because they dont want to raise taxes.
And hence it is easier to lay blame to the firefighters than for the political weasels to look bad. I mean heck, if they raise taxes, they probably won't get re-elected.
I think the right thing was done, the issue is no longer a "what if" it now has to be addressed. This means those political weasels are going to have to make a decision here, as well as the people living in the county. Such decisions of whether to stand by and watch shouldn't have to be made, but neither should there be a system to force such decisions.
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Thanks for clearing that part up for me there are a lot of holes in all the stories you read so we arent getting the full picture.
Do you know if SFFD is one of the departments that bills after the fact like I have read in some stories?
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Permalink Reply by Fireslayer960 on
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I copied and pasted this John, This is where I got my info about the IAFF from, I wont even comment on the IIAF statement that someone else wrote, because it was simply a typo, sorry.
The fire department's decision to let the home burn was "incredibly irresponsible," said the president of an association representing firefighters.
"Professional, career firefighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up," Harold Schaitberger, International Association of Fire Fighters president, said in a statement. "They get in their trucks and go."
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m.j. all i can speak for is my dept . we bill 500 dollars per structure fire. the problem is our insurance companies give the 500 to the homeowner and only about 35% forward this to the fire dept. when asked why they do this, the insurance companies stated its between you and the homowner. last yr we had 2 fires in our town with 16 rural structures in our area as primary. we collected about 30%, so do the math thats around 5600 homeowners keep that belong to the fire dept. thats alot when my town gives around a 8000 dollar budget.
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Can you verify this for me? Really, I am not trying to be a smart ass, but from what I gathered, they are not a fully paid department, and I think you misunderstood me when I said paid v Vol argument. I wasnt trying to imply that you were starting an argument there. Maybe I should have used the word "Fact" or "discussion" instead of argument, sorry.
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John, the commissioners met the 18th to decide. i pray the national media is there and havent forgotten us by then. one of our commissioners even said. we dont need a fire dept, when something 's on fire, i pray for rain.
how do you make them understand
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So what? I was simply answering the question, yes they were paged out for the original fire. By saying "Listen to the dispatch report" I was simply letting you know where I got my information from.
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