Fire Department lets house burn

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Mel, these guys don't have to worry about losing their jobs. They are volunteers. It's not going to affect their incomes in the slightest. Most volunteer fire departments are in small communities where everybody knows everybody else. We're not talking about some huge metropolis where people are paid to do a job. We're talking about people who volunteer their time to help their neighbors. They stood there and watched someone they most likely knew lose everything, and they did nothing?

Again, even aside from that, it caught another person's house on fire. What if it had spread? Would they still have allowed that house to keep on burning but only put out the houses around it? How about the hazzard to non-fireman's lives? How about other people's property? Don't those get any consideration?

I would also like to know how it's a million dollars for a fire response. Again, I think you're thinking "big city" as opposed to small town. I can flat out guarantee you there's no way my small town could even begin to function a fire department if it was 1 million per fire call. They would have to close up shop and let everything burn.
 
Im a firefighter and this is not with a firefighter is post to do we are post to protect and help any one in need money are no money
 
Sounds like to me the Mayor needs to be booted out of office, so to speak. Since the mayor is the one that says it's their fault if they don't pay, as a mayor he/she should be watching out for the saftey of their community.

Even if they are volunteer firefighters, they got into the job I'm hoping is because they want to help people, because obviously they're not getting any money out of it. All they were doing is bashing their name by not responding to the fire right in front of them, how can any one in that community trust their fire fighters to help them if something like that happened. Epecially when they offered to pay what it took to put the fire out.

It's obvious that people in the community were upset about the non action they took, because the article stated that a fire fighet was assaulted.

Even though they didn't pay their fee, how could some one just stand there and watch someone's whole life go down in flames. Yes, in a way it is irresponsible of the home owner because they should have been paying the fee, but they shouldn't have been denied service.

I know our volunteer firefighters would never do such a thing.
 
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tunes said:
Again, even aside from that, it caught another person's house on fire. What if it had spread? Would they still have allowed that house to keep on burning but only put out the houses around it? How about the hazzard to non-fireman's lives? How about other people's property? Don't those get any consideration?
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This is a very good point. The fire should have been put out just to avoid damage to other citizens. Now that neighbor's property is damaged for something they didn't do, and they payed the fee but the fire tax law also indirectly was the reason their house caught on fire to begin with. I think those people should sue also.

I wonder what would have happened if a whole row of houses did not pay the fee. Would they have let an entire neighborhood burn down?
 
I wonder what would have happened if a whole row of houses did not pay the fee. Would they have let an entire neighborhood burn down?
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Like what if, say, you went into the ER without insurance, would they deny service? Or, maybe a person didn't pay property taxes that go to pay for police services...would a police officer refuse to help that person during a robbery?

I don't buy this at all...it can't be legal. The fire department is there to help people regardless. Letting someone's house burn down is so beyond what any firefighter should do.

A million dollars per house fire? I seriously doubt it. I was told it is approximately $5000 that would be owed if we did not subscribe to fire protection through Rural Metro here and had a fire. If we don't have it, they come out but we're responsible for the cost. Most of the cost is man hours and then there's an hourly fee for equipment. There's no way that any of the fire departments out this way would be able to offer service to anyone for $75 or $200 (that's what they generally charge here) a year if it cost that much.
 
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Mel has a great point in the fact that the liabilities is the main reason for them doing what they did. Its a sad story for sure and I hate to see anyone lose their home but I know insurance does not cover any claims here if you are fighting a fire out of your area without a contract. We pay taxes for coverage in our area and other departments will not respond to help unless they have had a contract agreement set up before hand. When I was on the volunteer fire department here we had certain areas we could cover and others where we could not go to due to no agreement between the different townships. The liabilities of no insurance to cover the firefighters should something happen to them is more than likely the reason why.
 
hmm my feelings are all over the place here. If you're volunteers then you can't be fired so the firefighters COULD have helped but they chose not too. Someone could have stepped forward and said standing by is wrong and helped. Yet they did not.

How does anyone know for certain someone was not in the house? I watched a forensic file show where a home was on fire and everyone assumed the people were not home because their car was gone. Turned out the husband was inside and dead. Of course in the forensic show the wife had killed him and then burned the house to cover her crime, but the fact remains firefighters were told no one in the house so they did not search.

We don't deny services to those who are sick who don't have insurance, but we also don't provide the best of care to those who are sick without insurance.

What this did was make a mayor and a group of volunteers like like cold hearted bastards and a family without a home.

No wonder America can't get it's crap together!
 
But the mayor said, in the second video I believe, that had there been a matter of life, they would have gone in, even if they did not pay. What are the liabilities then?

What if the owner never showed up to the house or called 911 and only there neighbors called 911.

ETA: They probably wouldn't have shown up at all since they knew he didn't pay. Ugh, this makes me sad :(.
 
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I understand liability issues regarding a firefighter going INTO the house... but surely it's not as dangerous to spray water on the house from the street where the firetruck is parked (at least not as dangerous as going in)? While I could see them objecting to going into the house, because of liability issues, I guess I don't see the harm in them spraying water at it.

They said neighbors were using garden hoses. Obviously that didn't work, but the neighbors were at least willing to try to put out the fire.... it just seems that had the fire department come at the very beginning, when the neighbors thought the hoses could put it out (say, when it was in the barrels and shed and not yet on the house) this could have been a much less of a big deal with much less property damage.
 
I think a big point being missed here is that the fire took TWO HOURS to burn its way across the lawn before it even got to the house. The firefighters could EASILY have put out that fire while it was burning its way to the house without ever entering the property or worrying about hurting themselves. Even better...if they had responded to the first call, they would have had a small blaze to put out.
 
So, it's almost like they were trying to make an example of someone! Nice.

Just being firemen opens them up to all sorts of liabilities. I don't think that's a good enough excuse for anyone to use. By job definition they help save people and their property. One person's life or property isn't more precious than another's regardless of if they got their 75 bucks or not. There will be litigation...there has to be.
 
I think they were making an example of them. In my city, we have forced garbage service by the city and forced recycling. At first, it was just an extra bill, but some people couldn't pay the $400 per year so they added it to yearly taxes. If you don't pay it, they put a lien on your house. Elderly and disabled people can't get an exemption and it is excluded from homestead exemption. Some cities add the utilities to the tax bill and if you don't pay the entire bill, the last on the list gets shut off first. I think this is a growing trend.
 
Trailers burn with a quickness. My cousin's trailer burned and in 20 minutes it was gone. The firefighters were there as a precaution, but it was gone too quickly to do anything.

These are volunteer firefighters with equipment maintained by funds raised by fundraisers, grants, and these fees. While we cannot may not agree with their lack of action, there must be some legal recourse to it. I would still hire a lawyer to determine if inaction was legal.
 
fire department lets house burn

qoute ' what if, say, you went into the ER without insurance, would they deny service' - quess what in at least some parts of TN, that is what they do. My son lives in Erin, TN and he knows of cases where a sereve head injury from a car accident was not treated at the local hospital because he had no insurance. He went to a bigger hospital out of town and had his head stitched up and then was released immediately to go home. My son said the man's head was torn up bad (part of his scalp was hanging). Luckily for this man he recovered although my son said to this day, the man has terrible headaches and acts 'weird'. This was not the only case that my son knows of in that area of TN. I was horrified when he told me this - in NJ the man would have at least stayed at the hospital for 1 days or more for observation
 
A friend of mine had no insurance and was treated and released. They stitched his head up and told him he had a concussion and to stay awake for so many hours then when he did sleep to wake up every 2 - 3 hours to make sure he was ok. If he didn't wake up how was he supposed to call someone?
 
wow, this is just a tradgedy. one that could have been avoided. after all he has paid every year up until this year he forgot. it is a darn shame that america is so consumed with money and political bull crap that so many forget human decency.

fortunately, i live in an area with both paid and volunteer fire and we have an abundance of police presence and emergency services. everyone should be entitled to that right and maybe instead of making them pay a separate fee, it should be included in thier taxes to avoid this from ever happening again.
 
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Jenn said:
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Because Cranick hadn't paid his fee, firefighters doused the border of his neighbor's property to protect that house in case the flames spread, but wouldn't help him. He lost all his possessions, plus three dogs and a cat.


that is so incredibly wrong!!! What is wrong with this country!!!
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It's not the whole country. It's more of an individual community issue.
 
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