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 ...
Mike Darancette the lesser said: Can you say with certainty that none of the tax money paid by the homeowners went to the fire department?......
I can say for certain that the tax payers in the township where this fire was located are not funding the fire district. Your implied arguement that if any kind of tax money goes to the district would entitle non subscribers to free fire protection is on a par with the OWS fools saying that they have a right to live 24/7 at a park and set up a shanty town, do drugs and anything they want and get police protection from any critics simply because they have a 1st amendment right and the park is public.
If you have health insurance, you pay for your health care and the jerk that doesn't have insurance. That seems to be ok with you. In PA, every insurance company that writes home owners insurance in the fire district pays a tax that is given to the fire companies, through a complicated state formula this is called firemen's relief. There are lots of restrictions on how that money is spent but any homeowner or renter in the district that doesn't have homeowners insurance is not paying into the fund that provides this funding.
Again, your local government, be it a city, boro or township is responsible for providing fire protection. It is up to your local government to do this, not the town next door or the county 15 miles away. As far as paramedic services, it also depends on the locality. There is no law that I'm aware of that mandates paramedic services. You may only have a local BLS squad and be 75 miles to the nearest trauma center. If you have a long bone fracture and a 75 mile ambulance ride, it simply sucks to be you I guess because no amount of groussing on your part is going to make an ALS service materialize out of thin air just because you have a need at the moment.
In short Mike, you clearly have no idea how the fire/EMS service is funded and any awareness of citizen responsibility in regard to all this. While that is your right and privledge, I can tell you that the owner of the burnt trailer has zilch legal recourse with respect to litigation re: the local out of district fire dept.
I’ve known broke a time or two in my life, but if my home were at stake, I’d sure find $75 real fast. These folks took a big gamble and lost. Can’t now blame the firemen who were probably there to protect property of folks who paid the fee in case the fire spread.
Thanks for your responses. I live in a town of 60K in CA and all our “services” are paid by taxes of one sort or another. I can appreciate the pay for services aspect of the situation, but having the capability to save someones house and not doing so rubs me the wrong way. It just makes it seem all about money. Put the fire out and we can square up later seems more appropriate. I guess if I was part of a “volunteer” fire department, You put out fires . so what happens if they just let the thing burn and it gets out of control and burns down the neighborhood or half the county of folks who did pay for the service?
Crush all public employee unions and then there will enough money to cover all homes.
The county I grew up in had a volunteer fire department, and they went every where, and helped everyone, even other towns. There were no fire tags. So it was culture shock to me to think a fireman would just stand around and do nothing.
I understand what they mean about everyone needing to buy the tags, but the consequences are a PR nightmare, and out of proportion to the infraction. Why couldn't the consequence be that they would have to pay for the entire cost of fighting the fire? Any way, it is not a problem now, because eventually, we voted to establish a fire protection district for the county, so no more fire tags, and the firemen are paid employees.
Mobile homes are bad too burn down but not for the reasons many think. The wiring is usually not up too par. Civilian work I was a maintenance mechanic with electrical back ground. When I wire an outlet I make loops and use the screws on terminals. Older mobile homes they simply stuck skinned wires into the back of the outlet and relied on a spring loaded clamp. Loose wiring will burn a house down and never trips breaker. It's more dangerous than a solid short usually. I live in a early 1990's double wide. The first thing I did was check all factory wiring and updated it too my standards.
I do have two hydrants and a large creek within a mile of me so they can get the water here fast. For one of the fundraisers in my area they fill swimming pools in the spring. Everybody wins.
If that’s the case, it should instead be the homeowner who’s both civilly and criminally liable.
There was a similar incident in the same area in October, 2010 -- that made the news, as well.
Here's a snippet from another news article on the same incident:
…It's a controversial policy that we've dealt with before. If you live in the city, you get fire protection but if not, you have to pay the $75 fire protection fee each year. With this policy, the city makes no exceptions.
"There's no way to go to every fire and keep up the manpower, the equipment, and just the funding for the fire department," Mayor David Crocker said.
And Crocker said by now, everyone should know about the city's fire policy.
"After the last situation, I would hope that everybody would be well aware of the rural fire fees, this time," Crocker said.
Bell and her boyfriend admitted they were aware but thought this would never happen to them.
Reading the bolded text above removed any sense of feeling sorry for the victims of the fire.
It is an uncomfortable thought.
Our various VFDs in this county (3 or so, IIRC) wouldn’t let things burn, but people do get bills. We also donate, usually by buying tickets to the annual dance and breakfast fundraisers, etc.
There are less than 30k people in our entire county. Years ago, we had a Sheriff’s Deputy burst into our bedroom around midnight yelling “you’re on fire!”. It was the first snow storm of the season and he had been out to help a farmer who was moving stock and then had his truck go off the road. He had hit the siren and the radio as soon as he saw flame, from a distance. We had a chicken coop on fire because a bird had roosted on a heat lamp. No wind and a snow cover, so we only lost the coop and the chickens, but we had 2 VFDs here ASAP, putting it out. No bill. This was back in the 80s.
OTOH, we have a local doc who is fanatic about his prairie restorations and he burns off several acres every Spring. Unfortunately, he never seems to check for wind. He has been billed multiple times, multiple thousands of dollars and also had to pay damages to his neighbors. No one would let him or his neighbors’ land/homes/buildings burn, but we are the poorest county in our State and our taxes are already way too high for what we receive. Free service to someone like that would be a huge burden on our resources and on our volunteers.
Every locale does what they decide to do. We have gone from a VFD that meant well to a professional fire fighting team with decent equipment, response times and trainings. That is worth the bill and, again, our taxes do pay for 1/2 of it and in most cases, insurance covers the fees.
I guess I believe that $75 is very worth the service and someone who chooses to live isolated needs to make decisions concerning their safety. When our service was all paid for by the County at a very low level, we got a low level of response. Now, it has improved a lot. Sometimes, though, all they can do is let something burn when you are 10 minutes away from help. They try to limit the damage and I have never heard of a person being allowed to die if they can be saved. Sometimes, they can’t and I say that knowing it could be us.
As you know, there are never any guarantees in this life.
what happen in alot of the southern states ids they charge a yearly flat fee, and if you do not pay it when they do come out it is alot more, like where my family is it is $75.00 and if you do not pay it and they have to come to your house even the ambulance it is $250.00 that includes lifestar,the helicopter,but alot of people are poor down there and may not have $75.00 at one time,
It is likely that in a trailer fire, once underway, there is really no hope of saving anything worth keeping
True, and also likely that the trailer is on a rented lot in a park so there would be nothing available to put a lien against.
I’m not familiar with rural towns. I live in the suburbs and every town has a fire dept (which is why our parades are so long).
I know some fire fighters are voluntary because I always see signs requesting them.
I believe ours is a mix of both paid and voluntary because there is always some vote going on to raise taxes to expand the depts. or to add onto the fire dept. buildings.
Around here they’re all volunteer except for in the city. They do make a few bucks for going out on their calls and obviously the taxes pays for equipment.
I should probably “brush up” on my rural area education. I really have no idea how they are run, etc.
You don’t have to be such an ass about it.
“The problem is that the unincorporated area where this fire happened does not provide fire protection.”.
If you wanted to discuss this, you could have been a heck of a lot nicer and asked where I live and what I know of “unincorporated areas”, in which I would have replied “what the heck does that mean”?
I live in the suburbs. Every town has a fire dept. Paid, along with volunteers.
Instead of calling me names we could have had a civil discussion.
Its like doctors and Hippocratic oath. Doctors help people who are suffering. That's what they do. Firemen save peoples lives and homes. It's by definition what they do.
Where have America’s hero's gone? By your thoughts, you could care less if you have not paid the toll.
So trailer park Sam and Sally don't pay the $75 fee - but expect the firefighters to risk life and limb for free to save their meager possessions - and their home sweet trailer that is almost certainly way beyond saving?
Pardon me while I symbolically LAUGH IN THEIR FACES!
You are wrong because you don't know what you are talking about but to give you a chance to save face, we meet every Monday evening 18:00 to 22:00 for drill. This monday, your first drill night we will outfit you with bunkers, give you a pager and show you everything you need to know to fight fires, cut people out of wrecked cars, perform search and rescue, run the pumps, drive the trucks, teach fire prevention to the school kids, perform water rescue and so forth. You will be also training with the state fire academy (for your Fire fighter 1 cert) this during your free time, also you need to get your EMT certification and also help at the various fundraisers we hold to fund our little club. I'm sure you will enjoy getting out of bed at 02:00 to answer false alarms when yo have to leave for work at 07:00 but I know you can handle it.
After 5 years of this we will elect you lieutenant and then you will be fully qualified to talk about fire fighter ethics and so forth.
See you monday night!
I did my 24 years of service. So your complaints that I have not done my time are meaningless. I'll walk in your shoes when you walk in mine.
When I was active duty, I did my job, my duty, all the time, and I knew what that duty was, regardless of whether the paycheck came in...to serve and protect.
Hope you dont work in my district...I dont want to be lured into a false sense that you would be ready to “serve and protect” under all circumstances that you might be called. Seems you find an excuse for sitting by while the house burned down.
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