I have watched this article for a couple of days now,and heard all of the arguments in another forum.
The situation is a bad one and the solution they have come up with sucks. One must wonder how the argument would go had it been a poor black person’s home they allowed to burn down, but that isn’t reallt germane either.
These people need to come up with a new plan for fire protection in their community.
As a retired career Firefighter, I have seen the ravages of fire. The personal losses that cannot be replaced. Photographs, papers, inheritance ,that cannot be bought at any price destroyed by fire Irreplacebale items.What if Grandma had been in the fire they refused at first to even respoond to.
I have heard all of the arguments and know for a certainty that I would have fought that fire with a shovel and dirt if that was all I had to fight it with.
Sitting there with a functional piece of Fire Apparatus and a crew and watching this mans home burn is not the act of Christian people and certainly not the act of Firefighters.
I dont care to argue this point, nor will my mind ever be changed. No matter how cheap or rotten a person the man was, it doesnt excuse this action.
If even a Charles Manson deserves to have a lawyer, even a cheap sumbugger like this deserves to have some effort made to save his home.
If it’s the fault of the system, Change the system, but this is a sorry sin this community has committed.
The initial refusal to respond does bother me--because of the fact that someone's life could have been in danger. They should have responded to ensure safety of lives if nothing else.
“These people need to come up with a new plan for fire protection in their community.”
Socialism to the rescue!
They don’t need to come up with anything at all. They have a system.
This guy didn’t want to pay, so he lost his house.
Or if it had been a cute blonde chick's home.
What if you found out the mortgage had been paid off on the house, and that the owner was going to pocket a big chunk of change?
AND... that the only way he would get the money 'free and clear' would be if the house burned to the ground. What if he set the fire, to collect the insurance money, knowing it would burn to the ground, because he hadn't paid for FD services?
The FD certainly should not have responded in the first place, knowing the fellow had declined the subscription.
The voters have an option to go to a tax supported fire system or not. An entrepreneur or a group of affected citizens can install a volunteer FD in the absence of a tax supported system but the citizenry who want the protection have to pay the price directly instead of indirectly and more expensively through their taxes. He who refuses to pay for the service is making a bet. If he loses the bet, well, he has lost the bet. No one at the table is going to or should push another stack of chips over to his place. The assumption is the man is an adult and as such can make his own decisions, including bad ones. If the society must compensate and correct everyone’s bad decisions then there will be no longer any incentive to make good ones and soon no more resources to compensate for bad ones.
I’ve been wondering what would happen if the town itself had a fire that was too big for their dept. to handle.
Would it be reasonable for them to want/expect help from some other township? Or would the guys in the next town kick back, have a brew and some nachos, and watch it burn on the local news channel?
My initial feelings would be to say “Hell no, let the place burn!!” after the way they handled the house fire.
But then I come back to my senses and realize hey, it’s an out-of-control type situation, we all have to do what it takes to put it out.
My 2 cents, anyways...