What is all this about compassion? No, sorry, the fire department IS NOT a charity! If they resonded to this fire, do you think ANYONE would ever pay the fee? How about a customer that wants to buy insurance AFTER their accident? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. This country isn’t a charity. People need to stop thinking they are entitled to something for nothing, that’s not the way the world works.
Acting like a liberal dem? Are you kidding? That’s what you’re acting like – by saying they should have received services for “free”. THAT is liberal. The fire chief did what was right – set an example. If you want your house fire to be put out, PAY THE FEE. If you forget, then you’ll have to take responsibility for that.
Fulton is a city. Its tax payers pay for fire protection. I expect it costs more than $75 a year. They pay it in their tax. Fulton is in Obion County. Obion County provides NO FIRE PROTECTION. If you live in this area you are on your own. The kind people of Fulton are willing to sell you fire protection for only $75 a year. Because of this fire protection for $75 many people think why pay they will come anyway. Fulton can not do it, they do not have the money. This is the 2nd time the Cranick tried this. They where kind the 1st time but something had to be done. You can not keep abusing the people Fulton again and again. If you don’t like it you have to get your town to run it’s own fire department, pay the big bucks and stop abusing the generosity of your neighboring city. Fulton IS NOT YOUR FIRE DEPARTMENT, you have no right to expect service from them if you did not pay. Many people don’t understand that paying the $75 at the time of the fire does not work. A fire cost many thousands of dollars to put out. If you had to run the Fulton fire department you would go broke or teach people the hard lessen. This is what the hard lessen looks like.
This is an insurance publication so rather than address this as a thirty year veteran and past fire chief; I will address this as a thirty year veteran of the insurance industry.
“Hello Mr/Ms Insurance Agent, my house is on fire so I need some fire insurance…”
I have actually had people come to my office to buy auto insurance because the police officer was waiting at the accident scene for them to come back with an insurance ID card. They did not buy insurance from me but I see from the comments that most of you would have sold them a policy because you want to be compassionate.
The deal was, pay $75 get fire service, don’t pay and you get nothing. This is a pretty simple concept. If you could pay the fee once the fire started, why would you pay it before? Nobody would pay and there wouldn’t be any fire service for anybody.
Even if one of your clients forgot to pay their insurance, the company would reinstate only with a ‘no loss’ letter, apply it to this situation.
And to the jerk who thinks firefighters just sit around and drink beer waiting for the alarm to sound, join your local fire company and see if you can make it through the basic instructional firefighting class. In NJ, that takes four months of your time. Then, add on the hazmat classes, rescue classes, incident command classes, truck company ops, engine company ops, pump ops, fire police, rehab, decontamination and the actual time fighting fires and in three or four years with the hundred or so hours of additional study and you can call yourself a firefighter.
This is an unusual occurance but has occured in the past in other jurisdictions. The courts in all cases that I am aware of have ruled that the fire department is not required to engage in a fire attack but is required to take necessary steps to preserve human life (that would be rescuing trapped homeowners). A lawsuit would be pointless and perhaps frivolous since they would be demanding a service that they had not paid for.
I think this tragedy strikes a nerve with many because it goes to the heart of what we feel as a community versus what we feel as an individual. We feel it important to emphasize individual responsibility but we also recognize that there are situations and issues we should address as a community, that are in fact best addressed as a community. It seems to me that basic police and fire protection, as well as education, are the minimums a society should be willing provide. Otherwise the actions/failures/disabilities/mistakes, etc. of adults and parents get visited upon innocent children, seniors and those unable to care for themselves. If government will not provide those basic services, what is its purpose? Do we really want a society that says go fend for yourselves no matter the situation, that would let the homes of children, and maybe the children themselves, burn for the mistakes of their parents? Someone didn’t pay a $75 fee– should the punishment really be that they should lose their home? I don’t believe that represents America. It makes no moral or economic sense. America has more sense of community, more compassion, more common purpose and common sense than this tragedy shows and what happened here is not in the American spirit. Must everything be about taxes and money? America is great because we balance the needs of individual freedom with the needs of community. Once we lose that balance, we lose America. This really s bigger than one fire, one family, one city. It’s about whether we are one America.
It was stated that two (2) dogs and a cat died in the fire. Not doing something to stop should be considered cruelty to animals.
Theses people are paying taxes to some LOCAL or STATE government and fire and police should be included in that not a separate charge. I’m tired off this CRAP from government stating that they need more money, we pay a lot in taxes, manage our money well and stop inventing extra fees. There should not be a trash, fire, or etc. fee.
By this county thinking if I have someone holding a gun to my head and I haven’t paid all my taxes I should be left be robbed or killed. I’d like to point out that half of all our taxes go into local education, should we be charging familys an education fee?
The county can handle both aspects of this situation by simply informing homeowners that if they require service and have not paid the rediculicous fire fee they will be charge for the cost of the service in it’s entirety or fined.
Again these people are paying taxes to some government agency, I must ask what the hell are our taxes for if not BASIC SERVICES. KNOCK OFF the creative add on fees.
Cruelty to animals? Oh, brother, give me a break. Are you saying it’s cruelty if a human, trained or not, decides not to risk his or her life by entering a fire-engulfed building to rescue animals? Have you ever entered a burning building? I’ll let you talk to one of my three brothers who are FDNY firefighters what it’s like. It’s heroism to risk a life to save another human life; it’s stupidity to risk a life to save an animal.
It seems to me the homeowner made several choices that increased their risk to financial loss: they failed to pay the required fee for fire protection; they failed to adequately insure their home and possessions; and they failed to exercise good judgement by burning trash too close to their home. I feel sorry this happened to them, but the fire department isn’t to blame. Plus, by the time the fire dept arrived, it’s highly likely the mobile home was fully involved and was already a total loss.
Last, how do you know these people were paying taxes? They were in a rural area and had no permanent structure on the property. I know many that empathize with our current government think the government should provide cradle to grave protection for all our wants and needs, but I believe we should provide for ourselves to the extent possible. These homeowners made choices to spend money elsewhere and to risk their home and belongings. At least the homeowner could admit this. It’s a shame all you fire department criticizers can’t have the same clear thinking.
Your argument is ridiculously to the extreme. Nobody indicated the fire dept would not have responded to save lives. You are making that assumption. I believe we should take care of ourselves to the extent of our means. That doesn’t mean we should fight our own fires. It does mean we should pay for the protection we cannot provide. There homeowners decided to spend money on an RV (in additon to their home), yet chose not to spend $75 for fire protection, or money for adequate insurance, or money for garbage collection, choosing to burn it instead. Nobody was hurt and nobody but the responsible parties are out of money.
The Chief should be fired for not helping these people. Let them pay it THAT day if necessary. What happened to people helping people. And to see they paid it in the past and honestly forgot, where’s the benefit of the doubt here? human kindness. glad I don’t live in that county.
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What is all this about compassion? No, sorry, the fire department IS NOT a charity! If they resonded to this fire, do you think ANYONE would ever pay the fee? How about a customer that wants to buy insurance AFTER their accident? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. This country isn’t a charity. People need to stop thinking they are entitled to something for nothing, that’s not the way the world works.
Acting like a liberal dem? Are you kidding? That’s what you’re acting like – by saying they should have received services for “free”. THAT is liberal. The fire chief did what was right – set an example. If you want your house fire to be put out, PAY THE FEE. If you forget, then you’ll have to take responsibility for that.
Fulton is a city. Its tax payers pay for fire protection. I expect it costs more than $75 a year. They pay it in their tax. Fulton is in Obion County. Obion County provides NO FIRE PROTECTION. If you live in this area you are on your own. The kind people of Fulton are willing to sell you fire protection for only $75 a year. Because of this fire protection for $75 many people think why pay they will come anyway. Fulton can not do it, they do not have the money. This is the 2nd time the Cranick tried this. They where kind the 1st time but something had to be done. You can not keep abusing the people Fulton again and again. If you don’t like it you have to get your town to run it’s own fire department, pay the big bucks and stop abusing the generosity of your neighboring city. Fulton IS NOT YOUR FIRE DEPARTMENT, you have no right to expect service from them if you did not pay. Many people don’t understand that paying the $75 at the time of the fire does not work. A fire cost many thousands of dollars to put out. If you had to run the Fulton fire department you would go broke or teach people the hard lessen. This is what the hard lessen looks like.
This is an insurance publication so rather than address this as a thirty year veteran and past fire chief; I will address this as a thirty year veteran of the insurance industry.
“Hello Mr/Ms Insurance Agent, my house is on fire so I need some fire insurance…”
I have actually had people come to my office to buy auto insurance because the police officer was waiting at the accident scene for them to come back with an insurance ID card. They did not buy insurance from me but I see from the comments that most of you would have sold them a policy because you want to be compassionate.
The deal was, pay $75 get fire service, don’t pay and you get nothing. This is a pretty simple concept. If you could pay the fee once the fire started, why would you pay it before? Nobody would pay and there wouldn’t be any fire service for anybody.
Even if one of your clients forgot to pay their insurance, the company would reinstate only with a ‘no loss’ letter, apply it to this situation.
And to the jerk who thinks firefighters just sit around and drink beer waiting for the alarm to sound, join your local fire company and see if you can make it through the basic instructional firefighting class. In NJ, that takes four months of your time. Then, add on the hazmat classes, rescue classes, incident command classes, truck company ops, engine company ops, pump ops, fire police, rehab, decontamination and the actual time fighting fires and in three or four years with the hundred or so hours of additional study and you can call yourself a firefighter.
Laura,
This is an unusual occurance but has occured in the past in other jurisdictions. The courts in all cases that I am aware of have ruled that the fire department is not required to engage in a fire attack but is required to take necessary steps to preserve human life (that would be rescuing trapped homeowners). A lawsuit would be pointless and perhaps frivolous since they would be demanding a service that they had not paid for.
I think this tragedy strikes a nerve with many because it goes to the heart of what we feel as a community versus what we feel as an individual. We feel it important to emphasize individual responsibility but we also recognize that there are situations and issues we should address as a community, that are in fact best addressed as a community. It seems to me that basic police and fire protection, as well as education, are the minimums a society should be willing provide. Otherwise the actions/failures/disabilities/mistakes, etc. of adults and parents get visited upon innocent children, seniors and those unable to care for themselves. If government will not provide those basic services, what is its purpose? Do we really want a society that says go fend for yourselves no matter the situation, that would let the homes of children, and maybe the children themselves, burn for the mistakes of their parents? Someone didn’t pay a $75 fee– should the punishment really be that they should lose their home? I don’t believe that represents America. It makes no moral or economic sense. America has more sense of community, more compassion, more common purpose and common sense than this tragedy shows and what happened here is not in the American spirit. Must everything be about taxes and money? America is great because we balance the needs of individual freedom with the needs of community. Once we lose that balance, we lose America. This really s bigger than one fire, one family, one city. It’s about whether we are one America.
It was stated that two (2) dogs and a cat died in the fire. Not doing something to stop should be considered cruelty to animals.
Theses people are paying taxes to some LOCAL or STATE government and fire and police should be included in that not a separate charge. I’m tired off this CRAP from government stating that they need more money, we pay a lot in taxes, manage our money well and stop inventing extra fees. There should not be a trash, fire, or etc. fee.
By this county thinking if I have someone holding a gun to my head and I haven’t paid all my taxes I should be left be robbed or killed. I’d like to point out that half of all our taxes go into local education, should we be charging familys an education fee?
The county can handle both aspects of this situation by simply informing homeowners that if they require service and have not paid the rediculicous fire fee they will be charge for the cost of the service in it’s entirety or fined.
Again these people are paying taxes to some government agency, I must ask what the hell are our taxes for if not BASIC SERVICES. KNOCK OFF the creative add on fees.
Cruelty to animals? Oh, brother, give me a break. Are you saying it’s cruelty if a human, trained or not, decides not to risk his or her life by entering a fire-engulfed building to rescue animals? Have you ever entered a burning building? I’ll let you talk to one of my three brothers who are FDNY firefighters what it’s like. It’s heroism to risk a life to save another human life; it’s stupidity to risk a life to save an animal.
It seems to me the homeowner made several choices that increased their risk to financial loss: they failed to pay the required fee for fire protection; they failed to adequately insure their home and possessions; and they failed to exercise good judgement by burning trash too close to their home. I feel sorry this happened to them, but the fire department isn’t to blame. Plus, by the time the fire dept arrived, it’s highly likely the mobile home was fully involved and was already a total loss.
Last, how do you know these people were paying taxes? They were in a rural area and had no permanent structure on the property. I know many that empathize with our current government think the government should provide cradle to grave protection for all our wants and needs, but I believe we should provide for ourselves to the extent possible. These homeowners made choices to spend money elsewhere and to risk their home and belongings. At least the homeowner could admit this. It’s a shame all you fire department criticizers can’t have the same clear thinking.
Your argument is ridiculously to the extreme. Nobody indicated the fire dept would not have responded to save lives. You are making that assumption. I believe we should take care of ourselves to the extent of our means. That doesn’t mean we should fight our own fires. It does mean we should pay for the protection we cannot provide. There homeowners decided to spend money on an RV (in additon to their home), yet chose not to spend $75 for fire protection, or money for adequate insurance, or money for garbage collection, choosing to burn it instead. Nobody was hurt and nobody but the responsible parties are out of money.
The Chief should be fired for not helping these people. Let them pay it THAT day if necessary. What happened to people helping people. And to see they paid it in the past and honestly forgot, where’s the benefit of the doubt here? human kindness. glad I don’t live in that county.