Firemen let house burn – shades of Fahrenheit 451?
Yeah, maybe it wasn’t for having books in the house, but it was for lack of another type of paper (money – a measly $75 fee?!) that the Firemen in the rural area of Obion County, Tennessee just let someone’s house burn down.If I hadn’t read it on a national news service (MSNBC), I wouldn’t believe it.
This family lost all their possessions as well as their house on September 29, 2010, because Firefighters, aka Firemen, (people who put out fires, except in the book Fahrenheit 451 where they actually set fire to houses that contained books). But they did go right next door to protect the paying neighbor’s property from the fire they wouldn’t put out. So they actually were there and just watched it burn.
The South Fulton Fire Dept could have done the right thing, but no. They wouldn’t even respond because he wasn’t on their list of ‘people who paid their $75 annual fee.
“Anybody that’s not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don’t,” said South Fulton Mayor David Crocker.
The fire department’s decision to let the home burn was “incredibly irresponsible,” said the president of an association representing firefighters.
Right on, that was ‘incredibly irresponsible! And gives the PAID (and other Fee-based volunteer) Firefighter services a bad name.
I never thought I would see the day when an emergency service that was intended to help people in emergency situations would turn their backs on the very people that need them.
Can you imagine going to a hospital emergency room and being turned away because you didn’t pay some bogus annual paper money fee?!
“Professional, career firefighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up,” Harold Schaitberger, International Association of Fire Fighters president, said in a statement. “They get in their trucks and go.”
Amen!
This is definitely shades of Fahrenheit 451.
Maybe it’s time to go back to TRUE Volunteer Fire Depts where they don’t pick and choose whom they serve?
Sometimes, it really seems that just like it politics, paying forced fees and taxes to pay ‘public servants’ bites you in the end.
It somehow takes the humanity out of the ‘service’ and in time, they no longer serve the very people their offices/depts they were created to serve.
Cranick says he told the operator he would pay whatever is necessary to have the fire put out.
His offer wasn’t accepted, he said.
What a disgrace.
South Fulton, and the entire County of Obion, Tennessee should take up a collection (set up a fund or whatever one does to help people that are victimized) to help this family who lost everything because of their greed and lack of humanity.
Sigh…
More ludicrous statements by fire dept staff in the follow-up article at MSNBC. Unbelievable! (Thanks Mr. Anderson for the link)
Whatever happened to “Do unto others as they have done to you.” You know, the Golden Rule…Or just being a Good Samaritan for Pete’s sake (thanks Dr.Headphones for the kind words in email about this blogpost).
And what about the firefighters that just watched it burn? Just following orders? Fearing for their job? What political buffoons decided to take fire fighting out of the hands of firefighters and put it in the hands of bean counters and politicians anyway? What about doing the right thing? The Firefighters had to know this was wrong.
And what about the animals that died in that fire? Where’s PETA when you need them?
There have been waivers for others in the rural area — why no waiver for this family? Why did their home, possessions, pets, memories need to be ignored? Where is the moral outrage of Obion County over this?!
