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Fire Protection Subscription?

The Thriller

The Thriller

Well-Known Member
Thoughts?

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/when-government-services-go-a-la-carte/1127144

A home fire in a rural Tennessee county late last month has ignited a national debate about how government services should be funded. The debate is particularly relevant here in Florida, where some local governments squeezed for cash are quietly weighing the idea of making residents pay subscription fees for services once fully paid by tax dollars.

The Tennessee fire shows where that approach could lead.

Obion County in western Tennessee doesn't have a fire department. County residents who want fire protection must pay a subscription fee to one of the eight towns in the county.

Obion resident Gene Cranick lived near the small town of South Fulton and in the past had paid its $75 annual subscription fee for fire service. This year, he didn't pay .

On Sept. 29 his grandson lost control of a trash fire outside Cranick's mobile home and the home ignited. The South Fulton Fire Department didn't respond to the 911 call because Cranick hadn't paid the fire fee. Firefighters did show up to protect the property of Cranick's next-door neighbor, who was a subscriber, but the firefighters were forbidden to fight Cranick's fire. Cranick lost everything, including four pets that died in the fire.

The incident has aroused strong emotions. Cranick's adult son punched the fire chief later that day and was arrested. Cranick has made numerous appearances on cable news shows, claiming that he "forgot" to pay the fee this year and thought the fire department would bill him if he had a fire.

South Fulton officials have defended themselves, saying the subscription fee has been in place for 20 years and subscribers who don't remit their fee each July are reminded by mail and a phone call. The mayor said if they allowed people to pay the fee only after they had a fire, soon no one would be paying the fee. He's probably right about that.
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Clutch continues to post completely worthless crap around the clock.

Anyway, I think paying a fee for fire protection is ridiculous. They would have been in really deep **** if somebody died in the fire and they refused to respond. And if they continue to keep the fee-based service, you know it's going to eventually result in somebody dying on their property because of a fire and they didn't respond to the scene... then the **** will really hit the fan.
 
unluckyseventeen said:
Clutch continues to post completely worthless crap around the clock.

Anyway, I think paying a fee for fire protection is ridiculous. They would have been in really deep **** if somebody died in the fire and they refused to respond. And if they continue to keep the fee-based service, you know it's going to eventually result in somebody dying on their property because of a fire and they didn't respond to the scene... then the **** will really hit the fan.
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You already do pay a fee for fire protection, even if you don't want to.
 
unluckyseventeen said:
Anyway, I think paying a fee for fire protection is ridiculous. They would have been in really deep **** if somebody died in the fire and they refused to respond. And if they continue to keep the fee-based service, you know it's going to eventually result in somebody dying on their property because of a fire and they didn't respond to the scene... then the **** will really hit the fan.
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Yes. It's totally free everywhere but here. UB's unicorns and carebears float down and douse all fires before they even start. Pixie dust is wonderful, I tell you.
 
How can a group of people call themselves firemen and watch a house burn down? They're pretty sorry excuses for firemen.
 
Nate505 said:
How can a group of people call themselves firemen and watch a house burn down? They're pretty sorry excuses for firemen.
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That's pretty much what I was saying, but people seem to have missed the point. They also seem to think that I said fire service was free.
 
If you know that you don't get fire service unless you pay your bill, and then you don't pay your bill and lose your house to a fire, then you have ZERO room to bitch. Nadda, zip, zilch.

This isn't hard.
 
TroutBum said:
If you know that you don't get fire service unless you pay your bill, and then you don't pay your bill and lose your house to a fire, then you have ZERO room to bitch. Nadda, zip, zilch.

This isn't hard.
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So when people without insurance walk into the ER and are having a heart attack, should they be refused service?

Same concept. In this case the "fire department" (I have a hard time calling that group of yahoos one) could have sent them a giant bill and did the right thing.
 
Nate505 said:
So when people without insurance walk into the ER and are having a heart attack, should they be refused service?

Same concept. In this case the "fire department" (I have a hard time calling that group of yahoos one) could have sent them a giant bill and did the right thing.
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Little bit different. Check that, it's night and day different. It's posted everywhere in the hospital, and is well known that no matter what, you can get care regardless of income or insurance. This, on the other hand, has been a law for years. He knew it, the fire department knew it. Ignorance is not a valid excuse.
 
TroutBum said:
Little bit different. Check that, it's night and day different. It's posted everywhere in the hospital, and is well known that no matter what, you can get care regardless of income or insurance. This, on the other hand, has been a law for years. He knew it, the fire department knew it. Ignorance is not a valid excuse.
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It may be legally different but the moral principle is the same. Why should a hospital treat an otherwise healthy 22 year old who refused to get insurance offered by his work to save $20 on each paycheck if he gets hit by a truck and sent into the emergency room? In this case they do but he doesn't get off scott free. He either has to pay the bill or go in debt or declare bankruptcy. They fire department could have done the same thing here. Instead they just stood around and watched while someone's house burnt to the ground. I thought they were supposed to stop things like that.
 
The best way to protect the house next door that had paid the fee would have been to put out the fire at the house that hadn't paid the fee. Fires have an uncanny ability to spread and get out of control.
 
It'd be interesting to know what the ramifications of this would have been if Tennessee had a good samaritan law. By that token, the firemen would have been legally obligated to have hosed the house down. Morally I think they were obligated anyway, but I digress.
 
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