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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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Herb, are you really that ignorant of how the legal system works?
You don't have to be a lawyer or a legal expert to figure it out - you just need to look in a dictionary.
Definition of Bribery
"The Hobbs Act defines "extortion" as "the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right." 18 U.S.C. S 1951(b)(2). "
In this case, if the property owner consented to give up his property (his money) "under color of official right" on the part of the fire chief, then the fire chief might indeed be charged with extortion.
Definition of Bribery
"The offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties."
The homeowner apparently did offer something of value (money) for the purppose of influencing the action of an official (the fire chief) in the discharge of his legal duty.
Or - do you have some evidence that states otherwise. And Herb, your opinion isn't evidence. Neither are your diversionary personal attacks.
One other thing, Herb, the fact that I waited 17 hours to respond to this points out your B.S. claim that I stay up late just to respond to you. I'll engage in my Constitutional right to free speech when it's convenient to me, thanks.
I'm hoping that eventually you'll learn how to debate factually, honestly, and without personal attacks. After all, that is the MORAL thing to do, right?
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No, Herb, I don't need to explain the use of logical fallacies to anyone I meet face-to-face, because none of them stoop to using them, let alone using them repeatedly.
And Herb, your quote about the definition of insanity applies exactly to your continued use of logical fallacies. You use them repeatedly as if that will eventually make them less logical or less fallacious.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The fact remains that if you had been a member of the South Fulton FD and had extinguished the non-subscriber's fire, you would have been engaging in an IMMORAL activity - providing free fire protection to a neighbor while charging the next-door neighbor for the same service.
You can't get around that one, Herb, no matter how much you squirm.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Genelly III on
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So they WERE immoral by doing it before? Wait..............I can't use that argument because the past is the past. If my post's are so crazy, why waste your time trying to dispute them, knowing full well you're gonna get an earful back?
It's like a dog and a bone. I keep chucking the bone, and you, the ever loyal Ben, chase right after it!..LOL
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Herb,
Your continued use of untruths to attack me personally in no way makes them either truthful or pertinent.
As for self-importance, your continued pouinding of your skewed version of what was MORAL for the South Fulton FD is what led to our entire conversation. Then you claim that I've lost it because of you falsely imagine that I have some sense of self-importance???
That's unbelievable hypocritical of you, Herb. Your unbelievably egotistical and arrogant statement that your position was the MORAL one was the self-important delusion that started this.
I just respond and point out your B.S. when I see it. You make it so easy, really.
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Here's the proof about New Zealand's tourist industry...
"Tourism is important for New Zealand’s future economic growth. It contributes $18.6 billion to the economy each year—9% of New Zealand’s gross domestic product. It is also an important source of employment. One in every 10 New Zealanders works in the tourism industry."
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Herb, your continued use of personal attacks continues to show that your opinion has nothing factual to back it up.
You demand proof of my points, which I've provided over and over.
You haven't provided any yourself, except for your plagerized cut and paste jobs.
That's hugely hypocritical behavior. It also removes any credibilit you have, given your bogus personal attacks or anything else you say here.
I freely admitted that I didn't work in South Fulton, but I've worked in a very similar system and in Tennessee. That's a lot closer to the facts here than anything you've brought up.
And Herb, when you quote ONE THING that the Union City chief stated and ignore the rest of his statement because some of it disagrees with your arguments, that is the very definition of cherry picking. Here it is:
Definition of Cherry Picking
"select only what you like: to sift through, e.g., evidence or options, selecting only what you like or what supports your strategy, plans, or preconceived notions ( disapproving )"
You quoted the chief directly - and incompletely. That's Cherry Picking, Herb. Your denial isn't credible, based on the evidence.
So, when can we expect to hear some actual supported evidence from you? After all, that would be the mature, honest, and logical thing to do.
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Great. I'm glad you did it.
That would be exactly the situation in Obion County if they had a county fire department.
They don't.
So, what else did you do while you were the acting Fun Police?
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Permalink Reply by Fireslayer960 on
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By ESD, do you mean an Emergency Service District?
How are your jurisdictional borders arranged?
Is the city considered a different jurisdiction from the out-of-the-city coverage area?
More information would be helpful.
As for responding to non-subscribers, South Fulton and the other Obion County cities have tried that, and in the words of the Union City fire chief "it isn't working". It would be great if they could afford to do things like your department apparently did. They can't.
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That's right Ben, you have the ONLY opinion that matters...LOL If I didn't have a bit of truth to what it is that I say, then frankly, what does that say about a guy like you, who has to use $25 words/phrases to defend himself against a person like me who needs "serious" help??? LMAO
Doesn't it really pi$$ you off that I can get under your skin so much with so little effort? Do you cringe knowing that I don't take any of this too seriously, insofar as knowing that what I say about Morality is my opinion?
It's like the words I say resonate in you somehow. They tweak you to the point of nonsensical furry. The day common sense and decency trump bad policy, is the day peoples home burn down. Oh yeah...it's been going on for years now.
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"nonsensical furry". That seems to be the limits of your ability to have literate, rational discourse.
Excuse me, I need to take about 5 minutes and LMAO...dude, that was PRICELESS. {Ben takes LMAO break}
{5 minutes later, Ben finishes wiping the tears from his eyes and resumes keyboarding}
You are a legend in your own mind, Herb. You don't get under my skin at all. I don't let B.S. get under my skin. And boy-oh-boy do you shovel it out.
Common sense and decency DID trump bad policy in this case.
The bad policy would have been the unethical provision of free services to the non-subscriber while charging his next-door neighbor for the same services.
The Obion County citizens have EXACTLY the system they want.
And Herb, did you never have a defensive fire in your entire career?
You know, one in which someone's home burned down?
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Permalink Reply by Billy Lilly on
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Okay. So what happens if they have a fire in the town. and they get hit for a fire in the county. And that county resident had payed the fee. And there house burned down. Becuase they were fighting the fire in the town. Second the town is benefitting from the county residents who pay the fee. And never needs the fd. Sounds like the town is getting funds from the county to fund there fire deaprtment.
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