Posted on 10/03/2010 5:28:40 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
If I read the story correctly, the family offered to pay and they turned them down. I'm not sure that meets the definition of extortion.
I am sure some would say the exact same thing if the fire company put the fire out and sent a bill to the homeowner for $10,000 because the homeowner refused to buy a $75 annual tag.
This isn’t about economics. It’s about ethics.
It’s the same ethics that resulted in firefighters from all over the nation traveling to NYC post 911 to help clean up the mess. It’s the same ethics that sends fire departments across county lines to help each other out on a daily basis all over this country.
The Fire Chief got belted in the nose by the homeowner for good reason.
If it was about money there is no reason the fire dept. could not have extinguished the blaze (as they were already at the fire) and charged the homeowner a premium for doing so.
Do you support government efforts which do not make economic sense? Efforts which can only land the government in deeper debt? Efforts which encourage people to take advantage of free rides? Efforts which expect some (responsible) citizens to pay for services up front – even though they may never use those services – and which permit other citizens to pay nothing at all – and yet to have access to all of the same government services that the responsible citizens have been paying for and supporting for years? How ethical is any of that?
All across this country, local governments are in debt. State governments are in debt. The federal government is in debt. We see it and we complain about it. Well, how about expecting government to follow business models which work? How about letting the freeloaders suffer the consequences of their refusal to participate in the actions which create a functioning system? Perhaps that's a lesson in ethics for them.
A Liberal would say that an “ethical government” uses Other People Money to do all kinds of good things and help children and puppies.
I’m a Conservative. I say that an “ethical government” takes a limited approach to problem solving and does not use my money to solve every little problem, just so some people can pat themselves on the back and say “We’re the Good Guys”.
We've run out of Other Peoples Money. It's time for the ethics of personal responsibility.
This is just a blatantly wrong assumption.
My county doesn't even have a government supported fire department of any kind. We have a private, for profit, fire department.
Please don't bring your city assumptions about how things should work out to the country, where things work differently.
REAL fire departments will go outside their jurisdiction for emergencies. They even go to other countries for search & rescue.
The local fire departments have quite a collection of trucks, ambulances, etc. We all had wells in the early years, so the fire depts. had to have tankers. Also, if extra help was needed a "mutual aid" program was established. Worked for us then and still does to this day.
Wow! It would just be too cool if we could get them to do school taxes like this too.
Question? What makes you think, in your wildest immagination that based on the fact that the homeowner didn't pay a $75.00/year fire subscription, that the homeowner did in fact pay 100s of dollars for homeowners insurance?
I'm a volunteer in a semi-rural area. My township sort of supports the fire company but we spend more time fundraising than trainig. Someone has to pay for the trucks and equipment and training. If you are paying taxes for your fire protection and the guy in the next town isn't willing to support your fire company and is willing to let you pay for his fire protection, does this make you happy? Why don't you find the nearest area that doesn't contract for fire protection and pay some individuals annual fire subscription? Get angry and do it!
If a firefighter gets hurt or killed putting out a non-subscribers fire, who pays the worksman's comp or the death benifits? If your house, located in the fire district catches fire and burns to the ground while your fire company is out of town putting out a non-subscribers flames, would you feel good about your loss?
What happens if you DO pay the $75 and they don’t keep your house from burning?
If ADT doesn’t prevent you from being robbed they will cover your loss minus $500.
Will these A$$holes give you a guarantee that your home will be saved? OF course not. But this concept they are running pisses me off.
If you have the trucks there to fight the fire and put it out before it damages one of your paying customers than you should do it.
How much more does it cost to put the fire out? How about considering it valuable training for your department. In some areas you can’t even get permits to burn delapitdated buildings down for training.
I have never even heard of this type of “arrangement.” While $75 isn’t a lot to pay, the whole story reminds me of Obama’s Cash for clunkers. Letting the house burn ends up maiking some form of wealth vanish into thin air.
The Fire Department should be ashamed of themselves. As far as devaluing their other customers I am pretty sure the value in that community doesn’t have much of an upside to it until they improve their fire department.
I live in a rural Tennessee county myself. Our VFD's have not only firemen but trained first responders for medical emergencies. Many times they get there before the county ambulance service does. They also operate under mutual aid agreements to other VFD's even out of county in neighboring communities. Subscription fire departments are mainly for profit set ups. No subscription? No service. The ambulance service in my county is county owned and ran but they don't transport for free either.
Eric, aka mr. stupid.
It is like this. If you don’t contract for fire protection, either through local taxes or via subscriptions if your local government refuses to provide fire protection, then you are screwed if your house (or single wide) catches fire. So simple even my teenage daughter understands it. But you don’t, that why you get the aka...
The unhappy homeowner has no one to sue and it has nothing to do with city taxes or fire company neglence or contrabutions for the firemen. I can’t tell you how many times I have been to a fire when the homeowner didn’t carry insurance and then gets mad when we (the volunteer firefighter ) don’t have a quick fix for his problem. For that matter, it is rare to find a working $6.00 smoke detector in a rental unit but that is a different story for another day. And don’t even get me started on ambulance rides.
We’re raised to believe that things like firefighting and policing and doctoring are higher callings of sorts. In order for them to deserve that status, they have to act like they deserve it.
Fire company drill is every Monday evening 6:00 PM. You will need 150 hours of state fire school in addition to 48 monday drill per year to be active. And kindly put in 1 day per month fundraising. After you do that , feel free to talk about your duty to risk life and limb putting out fires of people that have no interest in supporting your efforts.
I agree. We have an all volunteer dept. and give money each year. There is no excuse however for the FF’s not to put out the fire. These people have lost their home, which will end up costing the township far more in lost revenue from property taxes. All fires should be put out-THEN, the FD can charge a fee to the homeowner a % for the service.
It doesn’t take a genius to call another stupid. It’s kinda’ pointless, and hard to prove.
Furthermore, I have no idea why you bothered mentioning your volunteerism when making the case against it.
“It’s time for the ethics of personal responsibility. “
Indeed. The fire chief and firemen on the scene watching the house burn had a personal responsibility per their oaths of service to the the citizenry to behave in a manner that honored their oaths.
I don’t know of any fire organizations which include an oath that discriminates on a person’s ability to pay.
Say what?
So I’m not “noble” or “magnanimous” enough to have an opinion?
There ya go! More of the “how wonderful” these servants of the people are. Wonderful enough to stand by and watch a families house burn to the ground. (and as others have pointed out, put others at risk because of that policy)
What exactly do these guys do if there is a brush fire? Just let half the county burn down because nobody paid the 75 bucks?
I could not look at myself in the mirror if it was me who stood by.
fireman /= businessman
Eric,
Some peoples stupidity is so obvious that it doesn’t take proof, but I digress.
If your city decided to close every firehouse to save money but you and 100 of your best drinking buddies decided to put your savings into starting a fire company but to keep the company running you tell folks that they have to be members of your company if they have a fire, would you then get up at 3AM, drive 15 miles to some guys house on fire who isn’t paying anything to support your company, would you then have no regrets if you fall through the floor and your wife is a widdow and your kids fatherless and no insurance to coever your familys loss of you because your were not supposed to be in the house to begin with?
This is why you are stupid, approx 100 firefighers die each year and many more hurt putting out fires and you want me to do it for some jerk who doesn’t care if I live or die or my kids have a father just so he can save $75.00 per year?
>> for some jerk who doesn’t care if I live or die or my kids have a father
No one is challenging your dedication.
Godspeed.
djf,
Again, drill starts at six, see you there.
O’h I forgot, you don’t have time. Well I guess you are at the mercy of jerks like me that also have full time jobs, wives, children and mortgages.
I would imagine if a brush fire happens on private property in an area that doesn’t have fire protection then the state forestry crews handle it. I’m also on the forestry crew, this is one time where we actuall get paid, $4.00/hour. The state collects the money.
But it is really this simple. If your town does not have a fire dept or company then you cannot expect any trucks to pull up to your house when your bong sparks and catches the curtains on fire. If the town next to you has a fire dept and they are willing to offer fire protection to individual homeowners at a cost, then you have no one to blame if need them and they will not come because you didn’t do your part and consimate the contract (pay the fee). I think the fact that the town next store has fire protection is confusing some on this thread.
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