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SgtJoo
2 Oct 2010, 12:01am
Firefighters watch as home burns to the ground

http://www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/PortlandInjury/otherimages/indexpic/flash/HouseFire_2.jpg

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. 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.

I've never heard of fire services like this, yet the guy is a moron for assuming he'd get help...

Ronen
2 Oct 2010, 12:07am
ah! finally we have successfully shifted 90 years backwards to the 1920's where you had to pay your firefighter to put that fire out with a bucket and a sink!

I smell a lawsuit...The assault even though might be a felony (due to the fact that he is a county/state employee [like hitting a construction worker]) will probably be thrown out. And the county will face a multi-million dollar law suit.

Dracula
2 Oct 2010, 07:04am
I see no problem.

ScubaToaster
2 Oct 2010, 08:07am
I see..... Americans have trouble making laws again..

EDIT: This is perfectly legal btw.

Banana Joe
2 Oct 2010, 09:26am
75$ a year... why not just pay it and be on the sure side?

Drox
2 Oct 2010, 09:43am
Doesnt this have to do with paying taxes? If you pay all your taxes why the fuck do you have to pay the fire dept its own fee? That would be like having to pay the police dept its own fee to come to your house when someone is murdering your family. lol Kinda stupid, as first responders they should do their jobs first then give a fee like how medical services do it.

Kiwi
2 Oct 2010, 12:15pm
Only in America.

tacosndew
2 Oct 2010, 01:12pm
Just pay the fee, if you think about it $75 a year isn't bad at all.

Harry
2 Oct 2010, 01:27pm
Doesnt this have to do with paying taxes? If you pay all your taxes why the fuck do you have to pay the fire dept its own fee?

as first responders they should do their jobs first then give a fee like how medical services do it.
Not all services are state/community funded (especially in smaller areas in the South). There are no any required taxes for fire service, and hence there is no state/community fire service; a third-party will be the one in charge of that.

I agree on that part however.

Lux
2 Oct 2010, 06:48pm
Pretty sad that fire protection isn't covered in your everyday taxes.....

PotshotPolka
2 Oct 2010, 07:26pm
Pretty sad that fire protection isn't covered in your everyday taxes.....

It's called a fire-tax district if the service covers more than one municipal government, otherwise it's just taxed by the city or county.

Why they have the option to opt out of paying is absurd, since it's a danger to the public to have a goddamn house catch fire and then potentially spread. My guess is that the area is just that poor and the fire service is made up of volunteers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obion,_Tennessee

Their average income actually isn't much lower than my county's but I can only assume the problem is that only like a thousand people live there.

Lux
2 Oct 2010, 07:32pm
Why they have the option to opt out of paying is absurd, since it's a danger to the public to have a goddamn house catch fire and then potentially spread.

Well, if you're including the danger of the people in the house on fire then I agree.

It should be a forced payment....and if you don't pay they should just fine you $80.

Ronen
2 Oct 2010, 08:24pm
Well any ways, I'd be sure to purchase fire protection if it was my only option anyway, So yeeah guy is an idiot, but in further reading! I lol'd @ the part when they came back to put the neighbors lawn out.

Simmons1114
2 Oct 2010, 11:17pm
z6xkT7FMyTc

i love the mentality we have of "if someone violates the rules even a small amount they deserve everything that happens to them" imagine if there was a small child inside the house -_- you probably think "well then they would have to do something" well would they?

Dracula
3 Oct 2010, 07:11am
z6xkT7FMyTc

i love the mentality we have of "if someone violates the rules even a small amount they deserve everything that happens to them" imagine if there was a small child inside the house -_- you probably think "well then they would have to do something" well would they?

I still wouldnt care, try again.

Shadowex3
3 Oct 2010, 12:40pm
The county where the house burned down is a rural one out in the sticks that gets fire service from a neighboring country with enough people to afford it. The reason this is still BS is because $75 out in the boonies can be a pretty big freakin deal sometimes even if their income seems high we don't know what else has been going on. Besides that why the f#@% wouldn't they take a penalty payment on the spot? There's no reason not to except just to be malicious.

This sort of thing is an example of why federal taxes aren't evil. Some places just don't have a lot of people making a lot of income, and other places have so many crazy-rich people that there's more money floating around than anyone knows what to do with. The fed gets in the taxes and helps out the places not producing that much because when one house catches fire out in the boonies if the wind is strong that day it can EASILY become a threat to the entire region (just look at california). The problem is our taxes on people making a quarter of a million dollars every year are less than a third of what they were even 60 years ago.