Staff Editorial

Firefighters don’t always come free

If someone doesn’t pay their electric bill, the service is shut off. And good luck making a call if your cell phone bill goes past due.

But what happens if you don’t pay a $75 firefighting fee and your house catches on fire? Should your house burn to the ground while firefighters sit and watch?

That’s exactly what happened to an Obion County, Tenn. resident. Gene Cranick’s house caught fire Sept. 29, so he did what any person would do — called 911 and asked for the fire department.

The problem is, he forgot to pay his yearly fee. As a result, the operator told him he “wasn’t on the list,” according to Cranick. The fire department originally refused to respond to the call — even after Cranick said he would pay whatever was necessary.

But when the fire spread to the cornfield next to the burning house, the fire department showed up and promptly put out the fire in the cornfield only because the neighbor had paid his dues. Firefighters then stood and watched as Cranick’s house burned to ashes.

All the news pundits are trying to make this a political issue. It’s not. It’s simply a moral issue. If someone shows up with the training, the skills and the equipment necessary to put out a fire, they should. If a person calls 911 — the emergency number — someone should respond. Even if that person hasn’t paid their fee.

What if a family member had been trapped inside the house? Would the department refuse to save a human life because of $75? As it stands, Cranick lost three dogs and his grandchildren’s cat to the fire, but it could have just as easily been a human being.

Now, in fairness, the city does state that if you don’t pay, the fire department won’t show up. But there’s a basic element of human decency lacking from this policy. If your house is on fire, and you’re willing to pay whatever’s necessary, take a check from the man and then help him out. Make it three times what the original rate if necessary. The man’s house is on fire; he’s not exactly in a position to argue.

And please, if you have to pay $75 to make sure your house doesn’t burn to the ground, pay it. Don’t assume you’re going to be all right.

20 Comments

  • This is HORRIBLE. I can't believe they simply let the animals die in the fire. I have always held such great respect for firefighters, and believe that other counties would not have done this. Hopefully, if there had been a child or another adult in the house, they would have simply charged the guy a huge fine and saved some lives.

  • This is a perfect example of the problem with privatization of emergency services. I'm all in favor of individual responsibility, but this is a bit much.

    What's next? Someone breaks into your house and is trying to rob/rape/kill you and your loved ones, but don't bother calling the police unless you've paid your fee?

  • As a 30 year veteran of the fire service these so called firefighters should be ashamed to play into the politics of this issue. Their job is to fight fires and save lives 24/7/365 days a year, if the firefighters are willing to assume the responsibility of picking and choosing who gets service within their area of response then they should not call themselves firefighters. If this service area cannot or will not staff a quality paid professional fire department then they should look into a volunteer service, either should provide dedicated, ethical and responsible individuals when they have dedicated, ethical and responsible leadership , apparently they have neither.

  • I think the shocking and sad part of this story is being missed by most. It is all fine and well to say that he didn’t pay up so he had what was coming to him. This however is not an issue of losing a car due to lack of insurance and bad driving.
    The point here is that there were human beings, that were there and could have stopped something terrible from happening to a fellow human being……and they didn’t.
    We are losing something very valuable as a species when we can explain away not helping one another. If you have the ability to help someone and instead just chose to stand by and watch while tragedy strikes, it is wrong. There should be no debate about that.
    We can compare this to insurance (it is not even close to the same thing) and we can debate the money he should have paid, OR that they could have charged him after the fact.
    However the bottom line in this is what is right to do for your neighbor and what is wrong. If in your hearts you think it is fine to watch someone’s home burn down while you have the means to stop it, shame on you.

  • It's a co-op. If they'd put his fire out, next year 50% of the members wouldn't have paid, and in two years there would have been NO FIRE DEPARTMENT AT ALL.

    I'm truly amazed at how dense some people can be. The dude made a bet. A very, very bad bet. And he lost. Does he have any responsibility at all?

    I'll give you 3:1 he doesn't have any fire insurance on the property, either.

    • Now those are fighting words Techherding! How do you know what the "dude" did, and why does that matter? Are you human? You sound like one of those money hungry fools. If there was no fire department, then another measure would have followed….but this played out very differently as you know. You cannot be in the field of fighting for someone's life, and then just refuse to do it and live with that guilt. Sure, the owner of the home has a lot of responsibility in this situation, and he did lose a lot that day…he did not deserve this, and nobody does. Maybe you should try to show a little compassion instead of hiding behind your computer.

    • "…in two years there would have been NO FIRE DEPARTMENT AT ALL. "

      Which is precisely why things like the fire department and other emergency services shouldn't be handled this way. It should be part of your property tax, or some other "automatic participation" system.

      What about those people living at or below the poverty level, for whom $75 can literally mean having to decide between getting to eat this week, or knowing that someone will come and put out things out if their home catches on fire?

      • There is mandatory participation — inside the city limits, where the higher taxes go to pay for things like fire departments. But people move outside the city limits, often because they don’t want to pay the higher taxes. They do want the services those taxes would have supported though! If that $75 optional fee were to become a mandatory $75 tax to the city, I am quite certain there would be an uproar. “I don’t live in your city, so why should I pay tax to it?” Well, this is why in many places, the city fire department just won’t go to the unincorporated/rural areas at all. “Sorry, you’re out of our area” seems to be much more palatable, but it really means the same thing: fire departments don’t run on air and good wishes, so if you don’t support the department, whether via taxes or fees, you don’t get the service.

        • Cairsten…how do you explain the fact that they actually went out to the house, and watched it burn to the ground when all was said and done? That is more insulting than nothing being done at all? I do not recall people in Haiti, areas affected by Katrina and other "Emergency" areas having to suffer due to something paid or not paid…do you? When humans are in need, you help them. If you don't, that is your choice and you will be viewed how you are viewed (paid or unpaid). How hard is it to lend a hand to people in need? Seriously!!!

          • When Cranick first called they didn’t go out. They went out to the house hours later when the neighbour’s property began to burn, because the neighbour was a subscriber, not to stand idle while the first house burned. At that point, Cranick tried to bargain with them, but their resources were already committed then to saving the neighbour’s property, which is what they were contracted to do. If they had gone into Cranick’s house without being contracted to do so and without any human lives being in imminent danger, and they’d gotten hurt, the men of that brigade wouldn’t have been covered by their work insurance, and they wouldn’t have gotten workmen’s compensation, because according to the rules they wouldn’t have been within the scope of their job. They would’ve gone in if human life had been in danger, but saving his *property* for free at risk of their own lives is too much to demand.

  • Forgot to mention, don't try to cut off heat, or hot water in the winter months…. it won't happen !

  • I just read a comment on Facebook posted by a Firefighter's wife. She said she would not be so quick to let her husband go fight a fire for someone who did not "value" a fire fighter at the time money was due. It really does not matter why he did not pay at the point when his house is burning to the ground….and with pets in it! This situation infuriates me. He did not maliciously refuse to pay the fire department, so that he could purposely lose everything later. If someone had shown up on September 11, 2001 somewhere and someone had not paid, would they have let that burn to the ground and lost the lives of many? This country is getting disgusting, and it is not acceptable anymore. Pets, humans, anything living…when did we all lose sight of the most important thing and why we are here on this planet….LIFE!!!!!!

  • There’s been a lot of talk on this story, much of it rhetoric and political posturing. The City of South Fulton’s politicians have made it the way it is: pay or else. The Obion County area where this happened has no fire protection, so the city department charges a “subscription” for their service. Sadly, the homeowner hadn’t paid up…
    The opinions run everything from “it’s his fault for not paying” to “the firefighters should be ashamed”… I agree with both: this entire system is broken. Nearby towns do the same fee-for-service fire protection, but fight the fire no matter if you’re paid up or not. You would really wish you’d paid up when you see their bill, though, if you skip the annual fee. That’s a sound idea, in my humble opinion… Provide the basics of protection, no matter what. Uphold the public trust, and hash out the money later. Obion County’s system is the problem, and the fire depArtment is hiding behind the “Policy Shield” to justify cowardly, despicable actions.

    I am a career firefighter with 20+ years of emergency services behind me. I can’t fathom watching a family home burn just because a fee wasn’t paid. But, that’s me. Clearly, South Fulton’s firefighters have a different mindset: this isn’t their primary response area, the fee-for-service system has been around for a long time, and if they “just put the fire out” then no one would pay the fee. It looks something like this; ROCK (S.F.F.D.) HARD PLACE

    I hope the media finds some new pet story to sensationalize soon. This one’s giving all firefighters a black eye, and only a scant few deserve it.

    • Actually, it gives all firefighters, and all people with common sense, a black eye. This deserves to be sensationalized, if only to show this is what happens when you let the Tea Party-thinking people into the halls to bureaucracy.

      • For the record, I’m very much a liberal. The Taxed-Enough-Already people would be the folks in Crandick’s area who have repeatedly opposed levying a tax that would support the fire department, fearing it would also make them subject to fire regulations aimed at preventing things like, oh, *burning trash in a barrel behind your house in the middle of a dry spell.* Not the folks on the other side who have to figure out how to balance keeping the department funded with extending coverage where it’s needed. I, for the record, am all for putting the fire departments under state oversight instead of county/city and levying taxes to maintain existing ones and pay for establishing them in areas that have no coverage currently, precisely because it would prevent things like this. This is what we have government *for.*

        The people in that area preferred the fee structure to paying through mandatory taxes, though, and Crandick then chose to duck even that pretty nominal fee — and he lost his gamble. No sympathy here; I may believe that this should be a service that’s there for everyone, but I also know it doesn’t ever come free — everyone should be paying into it, since it’s for everyone’s benefit. If you actively refuse to pay for it, you don’t get to whine when it’s not there for you.

  • They're pure evil. You don't jeopardize public safety to prove a point about conservative governing. YOU PUT OUT THE FIRE. What these alleged human beings did violates every known set of moral principles, where you serve society and worry about sending the bills later, where the golden rule exists in more than just a fable. Heaven forbid what should happen if any member of the Hornbeak Volunteer Fire Department should require the life-and-death aid, paid or not, of people who I hope will serve up a heapin' helpin' of karma back to them.

  • Yes – rather than bad mouth the fire fighters because the dogs and cat died – why didn’t the cheapskate who hadn’t pay for his annual fire insurance 10 months into the year, at least take his own pets out ? Why let their pets burn – couldn’t they have smashed a window – or got them out before the fire got really bad? If the fire fighters had gone in there and gotten injured, who would have paid their medical bills or their life insurance?

  • Here in PA we have Many volunteer fire department, even in the cities. I live in the suburbs of a medium sized town and we have an all volunteer fire station that would rival a big city. NOBODY is forced to pay here! And there is no way we would stand and watch a house burn even if the chief said to. We fund it the old fashioned hard work way, with fund raisers, Hall rentals, asking donations. The men in Tenn. must be some serious cowards to sit and watch a place burn. If the chief says no…screw him and throw him out! your a volunteer! If a chief here did that he would be out INSTANTLY.
    I'm glad I don't live below the Mason-Dixon line once you get down there America turns into a 3rd world country!

    • Oh really, we're the 3rd world country? Could've fooled me with those atrocious English and grammar skills. If you don't live there then you have no idea how things work there and its really none of your business to be judging them you yankee carpetbagger.

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