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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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Another Straw Man logical fallacy.
Nowhere did I say that fiscal issues and policies above the basic human impulse to help neighbors in distress. In fact, I've been giving into that impulse for 35 years, a great deal of it on a completely volunteer basis and largely at my own expense.
You really need to stop misinterpreting what I said, and more importantly, you need to stop making things up as if I had said them when I did not.
"I absolutely believe it's logical to behave like human beings to other human beings." That's a nonsensical circular argument.
Are you really saying that you believe in nonsense? That seems to be the case from what you've posted here.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony on
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And what makes me sick is people who cant see when an order is either unlawful or dangerous to the community or people or how bout the enviroment i also am made sick by people who dont have the guts to stand up and deny an order that is inhumane and unethical so keep touting your "lemming" mentality im gonna go do what i trained to do wich is save lives and property regardless of politics......
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Don't take my word for it.
Take the word of one of the Obion County Fire Chiefs, Kelly Edmisson of the Union City FD.
To paraphrase one of Chief Edmisson's comments, the only two services that Tennessee residents are guaranteed at the local level are law enforcement and garbage collection.
How they provide fire protection and other services are up to the citizens.
The citizens of Obion County have chosen to have NO fire department.
That leaves it up to a few dedicated firefighters from small cities like South Fulton to provide fire protection for the much larger population of their county suburbs.
According to another local fire chief, 85% of the fire calls are in the county, not the cities. That's a lot of human decency they've been distributing, and they've been doing it for decades.
I firmly believe in the mutual exclusivity that I assigned your viewpoint with the long-term survival of fire protection for the unincorporated areas of Obion County.
It is such a big issue there that their county council is apparently going to make the subscription system mandatory for the entire county, instead for the current 3 of 8 local fire departments that use it.
So writertee, what kind of local fire protection do YOU have? If you live in an area that has a fire department, it's easy to spout about human decency and kindness.
It's also easy to miss that in places that don't have it exactly like you do that the long-term ability to protect from fire and other hazards is the most important human kindness the city fire department can provide.
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Permalink Reply by Vic Silverfish on
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If he could turn our tank-water into wine, that would be great!
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Permalink Reply by Herb Genelly III on
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Writertee,........I shut my trap on the subject, not to make anyone feel better, but because what Art said resonated with me. I should have PM'd him as I totally forgot this thread sends email updates to those subscribed. Dang-it! I feel you took my comment out of context, and take exception to it's use in that manner.
I've been following the exchange the past 2 days, and after noticing the amount of continued dialog on the subject, thought to inject a bit of humor towards Art...several pages back...(I thought) That's All! My words were NOT directed to anyone else.
I let things get way too personal on this subject, particularly with Ben, who has spent 35 years in the Fire Service doing the same job I loved. He deserves a measure of respect (not just for being a FF either), as do all who post on this site, when expressing our differences.
I didn't do a good job in that category BTW. One "dude" phrase led to a degenerating personal exchange on my part. Instead of elevating a conversation, I took it to the "Let's Bash Each Other/Talk Radio" category.
Now that I've taken the time to listen (well...read) after Art's words, I told him I've been learning, then laughing...at myself FWIW. I appreciate EVERYONE'S passion and Intellect on this subject, and hope the conversation can be elevated to a respectful dialog, and mutual respect.
To anyone I offended with my previous post, I apologize. Good night all!
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Permalink Reply by Billy Lilly on
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Okay exspalin to me why south fulton claims the county there in is obion county. The town chooses to only give them $8,000 in funds. When like i said 40% of the county pays the $75 fee. which i should you Equated to $30,000 per department. But of course the town can use that money how ever they please. Ben if someone says somthing you dont like you say it's faux moralizing. Or somthing else. Well guess what. There sure is More people who thinks it's dumb and not christian like. Or of low morales then there is defending what happend. You want to keep brining up money. So whats she saying is it sounds like all you care about is money. Not how bad it makes firefighters look. You ccan defend what happend all you want. But just remmber this fire storm has created a public out cry. And it makes that town look bad.
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More B.S.
I care about the Greater Good for the community, as I've told you over and over. That involves being able to provide services in the long term, and to the entire community that doesn't care enough to have their own fire department.
It doesn't involve blaming a department that did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do in that situation. It doesn't involve ingnoring that the fire department in question can't give away fire protection outside their city limits and stay solvent. Staying solvent is an essential part of that Greater Good human decency that it takes to provide services in the future.
You argue as if money and human decency are opposing things here.
They are not. It takes money to provide fire services, in case you hadn't noticed.
And...if you can't understand that using a term to define the same term is a nonsensical circular argument, that doesn't say too much about your ability to discern.
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And you demonstrate it by ad hominem personal attacks, generalizations, and ridicule of religion...not even close to "respectful".
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Fair enough, I will admit to a poor choice of words. What I meant was the residents of that county, and specifically of that house have made a series of conscious choices to take a risk. I think they are making the wrong choice but they have made a decision and now should be allowed to live with it.
The firefighters did not choose to stand and watch. The resident chose to not have fire protection. The issue is when you have a "voluntary" tax like subscription service but no consequence, it encourages people not to pay into the system and essentially would de-fund the entire department. You can see examples of this everywhere you look. Hell health care in America is a prime example of this: Before reform, no one was forced to have health insurance, but the ER had to treat them, so if an uninsured person got sick, YOU had to pay for them! It sucks to force people to buy insurance, but the moral hazard of "free riders" was driving the country into bankruptcy.
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I'm unsure, because I don't make the rules for Him, but I suspect that he'd say "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's..."
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If you're only using Firefighter Nation and NPR as your sources, then you're willfuly ignorant.
There has been a lot of biased and inaccurate reporting and opinion from those two sources.
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Says you ben.
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