Firefighters let house burn down

What is strange is that the Cranicks said it took two hours for the fire to travel from the trash barrels to the house. They could have saved numerous belongings, including the animals, during that two hours.



If the men in the fire department do not want to destroy the fund-line, they would not spread the word.

This argument is like .. going around in a circle.


It's like not making a sex tape lest it ends up on the international news. If you don't do it, you don't get owned for it. On the other hand, it's also naive to think that humans would keep their traps shut over anything. Just like they'll pay for a sex scandal story, they'll also pay for something as outrageous as this. The jerk who can't keep his trap shut isn't guna give a crap about fire services in his town. He sells his story to the media, he gains big bucks.

ok, just thought I'd add some information here about this story since the video in the OP doesn't cover everything:

- The property owner (PO) was aware that he did not pay the tax.
- The PO was called by the fire station that they had not received his $75 and that he would not be covered because of this.
- The PO was sent a letter stating that he was not protected.
- The PO is not located in the same county as the fire service provider. The PO is located in southern Kentucky, the fire service provider is in northern Tennessee.
- OSHA requirements state that if a firefighter enters a building his fire station does not have provincial or contractual reason to service and should the firefighter get injured, Workers Comp can deny his disability claim. He can, however, enter a building to save human lives if it's outside his contractual obligations and may reasonably attend to the fire but only as needed to save lives.
- Every year for the past 20 years, the PO's county has voted against having an additional tax for 100% fire protection. They instead voted for an opt-in service. The county does not have a local fire service provider.
- A fire station cannot levy a fine or place a lien on a house outside of its province, country, district, or state. Since the city was located across state lines, the fire department has no control over the ability to assess or levy fines to recoup the cost to put out the fire. An on-the-spot house assessment is simply not possible.
- Firefighters fighting fires outside of their contractual obligations goes outside of the insurance the fire station purchases for their employees. To fight fires they are not contractually supposed to raises their own insurance rates and their claim, should something go wrong when outside of contractual obligations, could be denied.

@Erebus - how so?

If they had stated, "You did not pay the tax, pay $1000 now and we'll hose down your house" what would the headlines have been?

"HOUSE CAUGHT ON FIRE, FIREMEN EXTORT $1000 TO FIX". The republicans would have had a field day with that one. Regardless of what the firemen did, they were going to get flak for it.

Should a person who forgets to pay something also get treatment? If a person did not pay for health insurance should he expect to get health insurance? I understand the horror that this man went through as he's likely now homeless and penniless all because of a $75 mistake, but he cannot in turn blame the system for being bad on his own incompetence. The second he takes blame for what happened is the second he matures.

I don't see the problem. People have argued he's at fault for not paying the $75. I don't see why the business/firemen don't have something set up for these situations.

It's a "you don't pay so your pineappleed" mentality regardless of any conditions regarding the reason he did not pay. Let's take it a step further and leave this particular man outside of the circumstance. What if it was a person who couldn't pay it because when the time came to pay they needed the money for an emergency and before he can pay the tax they're house catches fire.

What's the answer in that situation "Sorry you had an emergency to take care of, oh well, sucks to be you".

They should have something set up for these situations.

If you don't pay and you need a service you are charged X instead of the usual $75 it should not be some kind of pay or die(suffer) ultimatum.

As two the second part... yeah but now they have every news media on their ass... If they had proper procedure instead of an ultimatum based procedural system (which frankly rivals what you'd expect in a mob movie) none of this would have happened.

It's not about money. It's about following procedures.

Then why aren't there any policies or procedures for situations such as these.

It just doesn't make good business sense to not only royally screw your customers but also have nothing establish to make money in situations which frankly are almost guaranteed to arrive other then a "sucks to be you" mindset.

- A fire station cannot levy a fine or place a lien on a house outside of its province, country, district, or state. Since the city was located across state lines, the fire department has no control over the ability to assess or levy fines to recoup the cost to put out the fire. An on-the-spot house assessment is simply not possible.

I'd definitely call this one the primary problem here - a region's fire coverage shouldn't be provided by someone unable to perform an assessment or levy a fine.

-snip-

Mind you it's an annual fee.

Mind you it's an annual fee.

I'm well aware of the fee's schedule.

Nearly every other business has something that allows people to miss payments but still receive service (generally at some extra cost.)

ok, just thought I'd add some information here about this story since the video in the OP doesn't cover everything:

- The property owner (PO) was aware that he did not pay the tax.
- The PO was called by the fire station that they had not received his $75 and that he would not be covered because of this.
- The PO was sent a letter stating that he was not protected.
This was why the words "He forgot to pay" stumped me. Companies become pretty anal when bills aren't paid on time.
- The PO is not located in the same county as the fire service provider. The PO is located in southern Kentucky, the fire service provider is in northern Tennessee.
- OSHA requirements state that if a firefighter enters a building his fire station does not have provincial or contractual reason to service and should the firefighter get injured, Workers Comp can deny his disability claim. He can, however, enter a building to save human lives if it's outside his contractual obligations and may reasonably attend to the fire but only as needed to save lives.
- Every year for the past 20 years, the PO's county has voted against having an additional tax for 100% fire protection. They instead voted for an opt-in service. The county does not have a local fire service provider.
- A fire station cannot levy a fine or place a lien on a house outside of its province, country, district, or state. Since the city was located across state lines, the fire department has no control over the ability to assess or levy fines to recoup the cost to put out the fire. An on-the-spot house assessment is simply not possible.
- Firefighters fighting fires outside of their contractual obligations goes outside of the insurance the fire station purchases for their employees. To fight fires they are not contractually supposed to raises their own insurance rates and their claim, should something go wrong when outside of contractual obligations, could be denied.

The red part .. really sucks. Not much more to say but .. damn. =\

However they try and justify their actions(or non action in this case) their behaviour is without a doubt completely shameful.

Clearly law doesn't work the same way over here. Maybe my mindset is against your legislation. I'm off.

Cranick said he had forgotten to pay his fee 3 years ago, but firefighters still put out a chimney fire and let him pay the fee afterwards. This time, firefighters were told to do nothing.

Knew it. This guy conscientiously chose to take the risk. "Forgetting" is totally b.s. This guy is totally b.s.-ing on everyone to cover his own back. You guys are totally eating up this guy's s**t in generous proportions. I tried to access the South Fulton Fire Department website so that I could try to find an annual subscription fee list for Obion County and observe if Gene Cranick really did make his payments for the past two years. Unfortunately, everyone is asking the wrong questions when they interview Mr. Cranick because they are generalizing his agenda to the American populace. They don't really give a damn about this piece as a singular news story. Honestly, if someone could pull up a South Fulton payment list for the past two years, I insist that Gene Cranick's name will NOT appear on it. My initial impressions on him were correct and I'm willing to bank on the idea that this guy took it all for granted and expected to be bailed out again for something he didn't bother to pay.

Your house burned down because you didn't want to pay $75. Are you going to tell America that you lost everything because you refused to pay a simple $75 fee? Regardless, he did not to make the payment. I doubt that anyone will ever know his true intentions.

Link: Primary Source @ 4 minutes
Link: Secondary Source

i read the article, the man said he paid every other year but he forgot this year lol

i read the article, the man said he paid every other year but he forgot this year lol

Thanks for the input.

i read the article, the man said he paid every other year but he forgot this year lol

AKA He's telling lies because the fire fighters were nice enough to put out a fire for him once. So, now who is willing to bet this is the easiest case of insurance fraud ever. He gets a nice bonus AND gets to make the fire fighters look like monsters to avoid having any suspicion placed on him.

Thank you Cactuar. Seriously, I thought people were going to think that I was just fishing for a conspiracy.

For some reason, I always remember to pay for my insurance, I also remember that my house was on fire three years ago, but I always forget to pay for that gosh darn $75 fee that rootin-tootin always slips by me. It's a good thing that everyone trusts me. Otherwise people would believe that I chose not to pay a $75 fee and consequently lost everything.

After all, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time (AL)."

I can see the justification for why they'd let the house burn, but isn't protecting life, liberty and property of the citizen the duty of public servants under the Constitution?