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And they watched it burn, again...
Before you comment read my whole post...
Well the story has broke again. I made this prediction in the many threads from the last fire in 2010 that got the FFN boards lit up. History repeats itself in the fire service. The homeowner this time admits they knew the past story of "Pay for Spray" in 2010 and about the $75.00 fee. They said quote, "never thought it would happen to them."
Here is the news video: http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Home-burns-while-firefighters-...
In my opinion, the FD who refuses to put out the fire is doing the right thing. As hard as that may seem, if the FD provides the service for free, then nobody in the county will pay. This story has been going on for many years. For those who don't know, the county has NO fire department, the residents know this. Many move there because it is cheaper to live there. Past studies have been done to reccommend providing fire protection services but it will cost the homewowner more in their county taxes. The county administrators have decided to keep it "Pay for Spray" meaning a neighboring fire department who does NOT have any jurisdictional requirement to respond to your county residence, is allowed to offer their services to each individual homeowner for $75.00 per year. If you pay the $75.00 subscription service, you will get a response and mitigation from the neighboring FD. This is not mutual aid, this is not automatic aid. This is paying for fire protection from a contractor. If you don't pay the fee, the FD has told everyone numerous times, no pay = no service.
In my opinion the lack of FD action keeps the integrity of the lousy system in place. The people who pay are getting services when needed and they are NOT subsidizing their neighbors lack of payment. The fire department unfortunately gets caught up in the media and the "passion police" when the story of "they just watched it burn" After the last story unfolded, many neighboring chiefs came out and tried to explain how small of a budget this fire department has, one chief even mentioned the fire chief sometimes, empty's the soda machine to buy fuel for his trucks with change.
So instead of continuously being the bad guy, I suggest the Mayor and the Fire Chief tell the county administrators that they are done offering subscriptions next year. Therefore no more subscription service to the county and the COUNTY will now have to fund their own protection services. The administrators will then have to assess a fire tax to their residents to fund either a volunteer fire department(s) or pay for services from another FD for every county residence.
Time to end the subsciption mess...... it is a black eye to the one's who have to enforce the rules and the integrity.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John S-B on
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I believe your money from the state IS tax money. It just doesn't come from the state money fairy.
Paying taxes for fire protection IS NOT "stripping" money from citizens. If a person is too cheap to spend $75 a year for fire protection, they deserve what they get. If you have "newer" equipment like you say, there's no way it came from just donations and fish fry's unless you have some major corporation that's just very generous.
That dept. DOES NOT have a duty to act. It is not their jurisdiction, they have no legal requirement to provide services, they were just nice enough to provide them for a reasonable fee. Your local laws have nothing to do with this situation.
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Permalink Reply by CKerley04 on
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Where is this place where you don't have property taxes or any county tax base? I bet it is really cheap to live there...
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Permalink Reply by TJ Pagels on
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So, you stated earlier: "I guess we just take for granted the services we get for free..."
Just what services do you get for free?
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Wrong on several counts...
1) South Fulton is a city FD. They have no duty to even respond outside their limits into Obion County unless the property owner privately contracts with them for fire protection. The homeowner intentionally did not purchase the subscription contract, therefore the SFFD absolutely had no duty to act.
2) What your fire department does has no bearing on this situation.
3) There is no chance that a lawsuit against the SFFD or the county will be successful. The county has voted to not fund a county FD on several occasions.
4) If SFFD gave away free fire services in the county, they would soon be bankrupt, and they would not be able to provide services to their city - the place where they DO have a duty to act.
5) SFFD is a volunteer department. They don't make any money from being firefighters.
6) If you're ashamed to be a firefighter, feel free to quit. It's easy to do if you really want to. The important thing here is that no one from the SFFD is quitting, and they're doing the best they can do under the circumstances they've been handed. It's not our place to tell them that they are doing it wrong if we're not in the same situation.
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No one was inside, so your hypothetical does not apply in this case. However, SFFD has a long-standing policy that they will attempt rescue at county fire scenes regardless of subscription status. That was well-reported in the previous Obion County non-subscriber case.
The county is not responsible. The citizens of the county and the county council have voted to have no county fire protection on more than one occasion, including at least once after the previous non-subscriber home burned.
There is no such thing as a job with the SFFD - it is a volly department. Their budget is so small that they sometimes have had to raid the Coke machine for money to put fuel in their rigs.
What way would you suggest that Obion County or the city of South Fulton handle this when the county residents refuse to pay for even a VFD?
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There is no government responsibility here. The Obion County residents have voted repeatedly to avoid funding a cent for county fire protection.
If the citizens of Obion County overwhelmingly do not want county fire protection, who are we to argue with them?
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Good post, from someone who has lived it. Thanks, Tom!
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Correct.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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There is no duty to act here. SFFD has no jurisdiction in Obion County. The county residents have chosen to vote down fire protection (ballot vote) probably because of the cost to provide fire protection for every taxpayer in the county would be greater than the $75.00 subscription service fee or as some put it just 20 cents a day.
The county administrators obviously want to keep the county tax rate down, so they are happy with pay to spray plan. The issue becomes a news reporter who sensationalizes the story with the compassion side of the incident. The SFFD has been trying to keep the integrity of the plan, and while maintaining there obligational right to protect their taxpayers money. Therefore providing fire services for free to an area that chose to not fund a fire department is a total disrespect to the taxpayers of their community who fund their service.
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Permalink Reply by 55 TRUCK on
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Lutan 1, What you may not know is that here in the US we have States' rights. Therefor not every State has the same laws. For example unlike the State of Tennessee, here in Indiana our State law says the elected officials will provide certain services, Fire being one of them. It can be a Full Paid,Paid on call,combination or all Vol. department. It matters not what type of local goverment. City, Town, Township or county.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Luke,
To expand on what 55 Truck said, it does come down to the decision as to what services a community will provide. As a result the tax bill and fees are set accordinly. What this particular county did was instead of choosing to fund for fire services, or to choose to pay for another dept to cover the area, they instead chose to have a contracted subscription service in place. This means the taxes paid in is very low and puts the onus of fire protection on the homeowner as opposed to the county or elected officials.
Such a system is stupid and should not have a place, it puts FFs in a tough spot and creates a cowardly excuse for any elected official touting how they kept taxes down. What isn't seen and what the FD and city mayor have shown is that such services do incur a cost and should be funded. Since they are basically contracted, if a person chooses not to pay, then there is no obligation to provide services. Whereas a county tax or imposed universal fee for everyone would eliminate such decisions.
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Permalink Reply by Nathan Henderson on
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Bias journalsim makes the good guy into the bad guy again.
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