Posted on 12/06/2011 4:33:24 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A Tennessee couple helplessly watched their home burn to the ground, along with all of their possessions, because they did not pay a $75 annual fee to the local fire department.
Vicky Bell told the NBC affiliate WPSD-TV that she called 911 when her mobile home in Obion County caught fire. Firefighters arrived on the scene but as the fire raged, they simply stood by and did nothing. "In an emergency, the first thing you think of, 'Call 9-1-1," homeowner Bell said.
However, Bell and her husband were forced to walk into the burning home in an attempt to retrieve their own belongings. "You could look out my mom's trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance," Bell said. "We just wished we could've gotten more out."
South Fulton Mayor David Crocker defended the fire department, saying that if firefighters responded to non-subscribers, no one would have an incentive to pay the fee.
Residents in the city of South Fulton receive the service automatically, but it is not extended to those living in the greater county-wide area.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Glad I don’t know you personally.
Responsibility2nd, you are basically correct.
We live for putting out fires. When you make entry into a home, it does cross your mind that you may get hurt or even killed. Check the NIOSH report at the CDC website on FF deaths. If I’m killed at a fire, my wife and kids will collect quite a bit of money to cover the loss of me IF I’m supposed to be at the fire. If i’m not supposed to be there because there is no legal contract between the fire district and the property owner; my wife and kids are SOL and all because in this particular case some trailer owner is too cheap to buy $75.00 worth of fire protection.
Some people on this forum are very generous with other peoples lives and resources.
We have a volunteer FD. They respond and there is a bill. The township picks up 1/2 the cost out of taxes, the rest is the responsibility of the homeowner. Usually, it is covered under homeowners insurance. If you have a wood stove and a chimney fire is a result of that, there is a $500 waiver on the policy, which is a bit more than the 50% cost of response billed to the homeowner. AFAIK, if it is an electrical fire or some cause not related to the wood heat, insurance pays as a matter of course.
If there is an outdoor fire, the cost is higher, since the FD is then battling to keep it from spreading to another property and becoming an out-of-control wildfire. I have heard of that happening and the property owner billed around $3k, with the good chance of a lawsuit from adjacent property owners, which may not be covered by the insurance of the person responsible.
$75 is reasonable, considering the cost of response, the stipend paid to the volunteers per call, the equipment, etc.
And isn't that the very definition of liberalism?
Thank you for not only your most informative post in this thread but also for your service.
Lucky for you Mike that you don't know what you are talking about otherwise you would spend most of your day trying to figure out how to get that blush red color off of your face and neck
In Wisconsin, it is illegal to turn off heat and electric from October through April.
If you live in the country, electric is essential for water and any forced air heat. Propane, however, is your responsibility. Most folks know enough to not only budget for their utilities, but to have back ups that do not depend on a wall socket or a gas tank.
In case dire emergency, especially where children or the elderly or someone with a medical problem/disability is involved, a call to county Social Services will usually result in a voucher for the electric company/propane company until the family is either back on its feet or receiving assistance.
I doubt it is too much different elsewhere.
"Oh sorry about your home invasion in progress, but you didn't pay for protection this month., Your on your own. By the way, I see you don't have a gun permit, I hope you don't shoot your home invader planning on raping your wife and daughter, if you do, the police will be there to arrest you. Have a nice day!"
I long for the days of personal responsibility (pre-FDR). Before the statists came into power, people would turn to their friends, neighbors or churches. Now it's the nanny state that provides for them.
While I certainly don't want to see anyone freeze to death during the upcoming winter, there was a time (in my lifetime, since I'm rather old and lived during the twilight of the aforementioned socialist president) when Americans would help Americans on an individual basis. Now, it's all socialism and bureaucrats.
In Tennessee, many communities ask for a fee to keep the firehouse trucks running. These are volunteer departments that are unmanned. If you don’t pay you know that you are taking a chance. People do not pay taxes in these areas to cover for fire protection. It has been this way for 50 years.
REAL firefighter’s would have worked to extinguish the blaze.
The City of South Fulton Fire Department is funded by the ratepayers of South Fulton who IIRC make up about 20% of the residents of Obion County. South Fulton City Council made the determination that if the extra-urban residents of Obion County each paid $75, extenting fire coverage to all of Obion County would be revenue neutral. Some county residents prefer to freeload.
While I won’t totally disagree with that, real citizens pay the 75 bucks to not be regarded as a freeloader. There is probably more to this story.
Is this a new story? There was a similar one a year or two ago. Same thing, residents refused to pay a minor fee for fire service, then when they needed it, objected to FD not responding. Think that was in TN, too.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Nothing gets fixed until we hit the bottom where we can’t pay entitlements anymore. Then, people start learning that life has consequences, how to set priorities, and to take care of themselves and their families.
Can you say with certainty that none of the tax money paid by the homeowners went to the fire department? If they paid through taxes then isn’t the nominal sum of $75/yearly merely some type of gratuity? You agree that it is a good idea for trained firefighters to park and watch homeowners enter their burning home in an attempt to rescue some of their belongings or perhaps a family member? Is the local paramedic and emergency room paid for by that same $75?
If you have information pertinent this incident I would be glad to read it.
It was. I don’t remember what community. My parents paid the fee every year as their taxes did not cover local police or fire.
I appreciate the kind words. I must be honest though, when I was younger I would say that I like to be of service to the community but these days I simply say that I do this (Fire/EMS) for me. It is just a lot of fun and I always say that once it stops being fun, it's time to quit.
This past saturday I went with Fire on a call, car vs tractor trailer. I'm a lieutenant and generally try to direct things but we were short and had 4 patients entrapped in a car basically stuffed under a 54 foot trailer.
On this call I had to take my fire hat off and put my EMS hat on, a lady in the back seat of the car was in real distress so I started an accessment. I cut the leg of her pants to reveal an open fibula fracture with lots of bleeding. Our volly crew had both drivers side doors, the A, B and C post and the roof off the car in less than 10 minutes. This patient asked me if I could find her glasses, I tried but couldn't. Before the ambulance left I went over to her and explained that I tried but failed to find the glasses and this lady remembered my name and thanked me anyway. This was an individual with an open leg fracture, serious off the chart pain I'm sure and she had the class to be openly appreciative of our efforts. This kind of feedback though is very rare so that is why I say I do this endevor for me
IIRC South Fulton offered to cover everyone in the county for a flat fee from the County. County put it to the vote. Voters turned it down.
That’s nice. so i guess what we have to look forward to is besides paying local taxes and fees for sewer, water, garbage, electricity, gas, we now have to pay specifically for all “community government services” like fire and police?
This incident was in a rural area. Rural residents pay property taxes, which mostly go for schools and roads, as well as the costs of county employees, including Sheriff, which is split among the townships. We pay for our own sewer systems, which must be to code and are overseen by the county sanitarian. We pay to have these systems installed and pumped and any repairs/maintenance. We are responsible for our own wells, too.
Our township supports a free EMS service. This includes ambulance to the hospital, but any other ambulance transport is from a private company and is usually paid for by health insurance, especially in an accident situation.
We support a landfill and deliver our own garbage and trash on the appropriate days/times.
Flooding is also an individual responsibility. Insurance is for rebuilding. However, pumping out your cellar/basement, repairing a gravel driveway, dealing with fallen trees, etc, is not the responsibility of the municipality unless the obstruction is on a public road/land. Even then, rural folks simply grab a chainsaw and get to work, because it might be hours or days until the crews get to you.
Driveways can be 1/4 mile long, uphill and winding. Plowing them are our individual responsibility, as is snow on our roofs. Dairy farms do get their drives plowed to the barn. There are entrepreneurs who plow for a fee for their customers. It is very reasonable, especially for older folks or single women or the disabled.
Our electricity is an individual responsibility paid to the provider who also does all the maintenance, tree trimming, etc. Ditto our heat source, be it electric or propane. We provide our own backups, as needed.
Home invasions are not going to be stopped by police or sheriff departments. They arrive afterward or when they are notified. We are responsible for our own security and, in reality, so is anyone in a village,town or city. We have the right to self defense in our state, the right to open carry and finally, the right to conceal carry.
When the country was scared witless by Y2K, we had people who organized to demand that the towns, villages and townships “do something” for everyone, in case of TEOTWAWKI. Those entities had not a clue and said so. People were stunned.
We live in times when self reliance is going to be essential, when even larger cities are going to have to cut services. Nothing is guaranteed and perhaps it is time everyone accepted that and got serious about providing for themselves.
That said, no one is always going to be completely prepared for everything. You do the best you can. Everyone else is going to be in the same situation. Being able to help yourself and perhaps a neighbor, helps everyone, in the long run.
I think people still do that for family and close friends. We have and folks have responded to us when we were in an emergency.
In small communities, paying taxes for such help is acceptable, IMO. There are always people who live soap opera lives and they existed back in the day, as well. They received government help, but it was commodities or access to an assistance fund. I remember when insurance agents kept a stash of cash to help someone who had a tough time and couldn’t make a premium payment. That was when you delivered the premium personally to the individual who sold you the policy. (Which gives you an idea of _my_ age!)
The churches get overwhelmed, these days. Besides the glaring real needs, there are grifters who go from church to church cadging handouts. I know pastors who have had to invoke tough love, after a while.
Emergencies are one thing, but being in perpetual need is wearing on everyone and, I assume, is horrid for many folks. Lots of times it is some woman who is living with a man who could care less and there are kids involved. Even family burns out in those cases.
We haven’t raised people to think or plan or understand that they need to be responsible for themselves. Morality has gone by the wayside and more and more, people just tune each other out and become hermits. We may all live in the same geographical area, but we aren’t real communities, such as I remember.
I don’t know the solution to all this. On an individual basis, you can get caught into a situation where you give again and again and all it accomplishes is a drain on the giver, because most of the recipients are not ever going to
change and just expect the giver to continue on. People even will resent those who help because the implied obligation can never be met. Perhaps the bureaucracy was developed so the charity could be more anonymous. I agree it has gotten out of hand.
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