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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 Ben Waller on
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Or, you can come in here with intentional ignorance of the facts, distortion, and faux moralizing while conducting anonymous, ad hominem attacks that don't pass either the logical fallacy test or the smell test.
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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on
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Ben,
Sorry to correct you but her "arguments" do indeed pass the smell test; they smell like bullshit. Willfully uninformed and mostly with out any content, but most certainly, reeking of bullshit.
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The South Fulton FD has been doing that for the unincorporated areas of Obion County for over 20 years, and with almost no support from the county.
Since when is it "moral" or "human decency" for the county citizens to insist that a small city (2,500) fire department has to provide them (population 30,000 plus) with free fire protection?
The answer is - it's not, because only one of the county residents did that.
Your blame is misplaced. Put it on the homeowner that started the fire and that gambled by not doing his fair share.
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Thanks. Should I tell her that another of her assumptions is wrong, and that I don't live in Tennessee.
You gotta love the ire of the ignorant.
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writertee,
You don't get to decide what "the right thing" is here, because you obviously don't know what it is. I'll repeat - your point is faux moralizing. What you advocate is kind to one family in the short term to the detriment of everyone else in the community in the long term. That's the polar opposite, mutually exclusive from that "human decency" you touted a few minutes ago.
A rational look at the situation seems to have escaped you.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Genelly III on
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Hey Chief..............Notice I good I've been...(6 pages since I shut my trap, and counting)...LOL Somehow, now that I'm not on the receiving end of things, I'm on that part where I told you I learn a little, and laugh a lot. Again, thanks for setting me straight with the words of wisdom.
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I would not necessarily decree that hearing the story on NPR is either the end-all or the be-all, simply one variant of the story.
I've read the media accounts, watched the interviews and read a lot of the back story. I'm comfortable that I have a good working knowledge of the issue.
Oh I believe you are here to impress. Your telegraphic writing attests to that, you write in bullet points as though those alone suffice to impress us blue collary, red neckery bastards who should be in awe of your cerebral might.
You aren't (insofar as you've indicated) capable of walking in any fireman's shoes as you aren't one. You're just a judgment waiting to pronounce.
Lost pets? First report by the homeowner stated all the pets were out. Later comments from him suggested otherwise. Other comments from him changed as the story grew legs.
Obviously your moral outrage has precluded you from reading up on the facts, the fire department didn't hang around and watch it burn down. That is just a mental picture being painted by morally blessed individuals such as yourself.
Your decreeing it a shame still doesn't make it one, least not in the way you intend it.
Was it a shame someone's house burned down? Sure.
Was it a shame it might have been prevented had the homeowner subscribed? Yup.
Is it a shame that every moralizing tom, dick and jane have popped up to press their own agenda and get whatever mileage out of it they can. Yes.
You can argue that if you want.
Oh and as for you being moved to give your viewpoint? Should we presume that you were divinely moved, since your speaking ex cathedra?
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Straw Man logical fallacy. No one said that it was "OK" except for YOU, writertee.
The situation is of the Obion County resident's own making. Blaming the city who is trying to just keep their fire department in business as well as helping the county residents who have repeatedly refused to either start their own fire department is misplaced blame.
It is a shame, but not in every aspect, because that's misplaced blame.
At least you're consistent in misplacing it.
It's not "deemed OK" by me or anyone here. It's the least of a wide range of bad choices that constrain everyone in the situation except for the homeowner who was careless with fire.
It is a shame, but not in "every aspect".
We have a standard for fairness to all in this country, whatever the local system. The homeowner tried to cheat and found out that it was a violation of both human decency and civilized fairness.
That's not the fault of the fire chief, the firefighters, or anyone connected with the city of South Fulton. It's also not my fault because I have an open mind and a larger sense of what human decency actually is.
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Shockingly, I heard the story on NPR, too, as well as on the internet, my local radio stations, and several cable TV news stations.
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Willfully ignorant because you seem to think that your version of the world
shouldmust run on your version of morality. There are other versions of morality, such as which is more moral: putting out someone's house who chose NOT to subscribe to fire protection; putting out a fire started by the homeowner who was illegally burning in his yard (no rain for the past 2 weeks), allowing residents of the city to fund a fire department that people in the county don't (and most often refuse) to pay for; or a County Mayor and commissioners who, with a report from 2 1/2 years ago clearly delineating the issues,problems and solutions chose NOT to act and create a county-wide fire department which led to this incident.
Which of the above is more morally outrageous? Or are you one of those "morally outraged at the issue de jour" type people, who get their outrage target from NPR, are outraged for a day or two and then move on to another outrage worthy of their morals?
Moreover, you're not a fireman, why exactly the hell are you in here?
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"I earnestly was trying to be respectful." No, you weren't. You apparently weren't trying to be truthful, either.
"Are you ashamed." You've GOT to be kidding me. My priorities are for the fire department to be able to protect their community in the future - and to also protect their neighbors in the county, who don't appear to care that they don't have their own fire department. That means that everyone has to abide by the system they have, regardless of what that system is. Everyone except one property owner apparently did that.
"Everything you answered was about money." No, it wasn't. Here's an example:
"Most importantly, I addressed the complete lack of human decency from those of you who see only your own narrow view of human decency while ignoring the Greater Good that the SFFD provides."
I also addressed the homeowner's careless use of fire. That wasn't about money.
I also addressed the human decency that South Fulton's fire department has provided for Obion County for over 20 years, even though it's not their city's responsibility.
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So what was with the ad hominem attack about going to church and the WWJD bracelets?
It might interest you to know that Jack and I have polar opposite views on that particular topic, so when he defends me, you can rest assured that it isn't about any of your ridicule of religion.
And...that ridicule is evidence that you aren't confident enough to debate on the facts.
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