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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 Ben Waller on
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I see that you are still ducking questions about issues that you bring up, Herb.
Come on, Herb, show me the evidence. If you can't there are two other options...either quit posting demonstrable B.S. like this or expect to be called out on it whenever you do it.
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Andrew, you get it, except for one thing.
Unless the county passes a law that gives the cities the right to put a lien on non-subscribers who don't pay the (hypothetical) suppression fee, then the cities don't have the right to put a lien on property outside their city limits.
The thing is that Obion County's system works for everyone who doesn't take the "gambler" option.
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I disagree, Mark. No one in my area cares what happened in Obion County or why, because we have a fully career, tax-based fire protection system here.
And if there is a black eye, the only one who deserves it is the homeowner.
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Your view isn't Moral at all. It is immoral to provide free fire protection to a cheat while charging his next door neighbor for the same service, but that's the inevitable result of what you espouse.
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Fireslayer, have you ever heard of the Rural/Metro Corporation.
They are a for-profit company that provides fire, EMS, and other services in different parts of the country, including in Knox County, Tennessee, the state's third-largest.
Rural/Metro uses volunteers to support their career personnel.
And Fireslayer, have you ever studied the history of the fire service? The entire reason for the fire service is that it arose to protect the fire insurance companies's bottom line.
The current ISO grading schedule does the same thing - it's designed to avoid large fire losses, which in turn, avoids large fire insurance payouts and increases insurance company profits.
Did you know that ALL fire departments in the U.S. that are rated by the ISO grading schedule are essentially working for the insurance industry?
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Permalink Reply by Herb Genelly III on
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Oh...Ben....Here's a link: http://www.state.tn.us/environment/apc/regs/
Have fun finding out you're wrong...AGAIN!
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Fireslayer,
Provide links to the specifics, or you're still B.S.ing here.
You provided zero specifics, zero links - just vague accusations. That's not evidence.
Specifics, Fireslayer, or it's B.S.
As for my response to the NZ poster, please explain how it was "below the belt'??? Just because you have an opinion doesn't make it so. So, tell me exactly how and why it was "below the belt".
It wasn't, but I'll enjoy watching you try to explain it.
And Fireslayer, just because a lot of people have an opinion doesn't make those opinions right. When those opinions are demonstrably based on ignorance of the facts, that just means that the majority are ignorant.
As for the namecalling accusations, others have already taken care of that above. I'll just let it ride until you can explain how my request for the NZ firefighter to see the bigger picture and to contribute to Obion County's finances in the same way that U.S. tourist dollars support his country's economy and allow his country's fire service the luxury of the system type that he believes so strongly that Obion County should have.
And Fireslayer, your lengthy and vague post was indeed a rant. It comes right before "troll" in the internet flame war definitions. Oh wait, you called me a "troll". That's one example of the namecalling I spoke of. The equals "evidence".
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Herb, you keep getting confused between the county and the cities that provide fire protection.
What I think you're saying in that rather confused post is that you think that all of the municipalities in Obion County should provide fire services the same way?
The system isn't set up that way, and as the Union City chief admits, the free fire protection system isn't working out and it's not sustainable.
The Union City chief also stated that South Fulton's system works for them and it has allowed them to maintain services for over 20 years that would have otherwise not been provided.
Just like your expectations for California, what other fire departments do are not pertinent. The only thing that matters is how South Fulton does it.
And no, Herb, I'm not calling any other departments rogue. Once again, you're putting words in my mouth. How about you stick to something I actually said for once instead of injecting puff?
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Ben,
Please PROVE that US Tourism pays for New Zealand's fire departments! Where are your facts? ...LOL
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Herb,
Get help. Serious, serious help.
And while you're at it, you need to stop the slander and the lies.
When you start accusing me of extortion, making parking lots, bad decisions, those are both lies and slander, Herb. I don't have to be a lawyer to figure that one out.
And Herb, nowhere did I claim to be an expert on extortion.
You said that. You just made it up. That's all your'e capable of.
For the rest of that B.S. you posted, I happen to engage in my right to free speech when and where I choose. You are unable to bait me into engaging in that right, Herb.
You have an overblown, arrogant view of yourself. Projecting it onto me is simply another of your delusions.
Remember Herb, that if you base your statements on things that are not factual, then they are delusions. Since you are just making this up, your post is indeed delusional.
Herb, this all started because you made the claim that South Fulton FD's action wasn't "MORAL".
When you use demonstrable falsehoods and personal attacks to defend that point, it's anything but MORAL.
You've helped disprove your own point there. I'm not shocked that you're apparently not capable of understanding it.
Your ridicule shows that you got nothin' here, dude.
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Oh Ben....the Moral Police too? Say it ain't so! How do you combine the Fun Police and the Moral Police?.....and since when did Olbion need YOU to defend their Honor?
And for the record, I said that allowing the structure to burn is not Morally right. I don't want nothin' from you, cuz you have nothin' I want.
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