Tea Party less Gov.- Firefighters refuse to put out fire

[Bigblue1]

Firemen=pet haters Dumb ass who doesn't pay his fir insurance dues=Martyr Does not compute. This guy is not a martyr he is the one who didn't think enough of his family,possessions, or pets to pay a nominal fee of $75 dollars a year to protect those things. I live in an unincorporated area. We all pay are $100 road association dues every year. This is for services that mainly relate to road maintenance. Also every house has it's own well and septic fields. Yes we are not city but part of a big county. So we do get fire and police services. I might see a police car on my road once a year and believe it or not I like it that way. Anyway this is such a non issue that the left is trying as hard as they can to get some mileage out of. But their not changing anybodies minds. This will only polarize the sides even more as can be seen in this thread.

[unnaked]

What goes around comes around, and I have a feeling South Fulton's budget will be scrutinized after this. Occasionally people get curious about where their tax dollars are really winding up. My property tax in NJ is over $500 a month, and we still have volunteer fire and ambulance services, and they're constantly holding fundraisers to try to survive. The schools suck and the roads are full of potholes. I guess I'm paying $500 a month for garbage pickup. Or maybe I'm buying some fatass somewhere a bigger boat.

[TheJanitor]

I'm going to quit paying my car insurance.Next time I'm in a wreck and total my $15,000 car,I'm going to call the insurance company afterwards and demand they cover me if I pay my $75 premium now.If I tried this,you would all think I'm a f**king idiot.This guy did the exact same thing,only with "fire insurance".I cannot believe he is being defended.

[sgreger1]

So, Sgreger, I understand completely where your opinion is coming from, and I sort of agree except for one thing. I am not even sure it applies here but I will share my thought anyway.

I give to the Police and Fire charities here in Houston. My taxes already pay for those services but I feel the need to extend what I already give in taxes because I care and appreciate what they do for me and my family. These charities are to help those families from fallen policemen and firemen (and women). Now my quandary: Should these families not already have life insurance to help in the unfortunate case of their respective family member dying in the line of duty? Should they not already have plans in place if, God forbid, anything like that happen? So, why would they need a charity?

This guy should have paid the cash but since he didn't and the firemen where there already, would it not have made sense to put out the fire only to in turn send him a bill for the full amount that it took to put the fire out?

I dunno..... but it is a f.uck.ed situation.
Long time no post for me I know.... lol.... but I lurk around everyday. lol

Yah man, where you been!

I too donate to the fallen officer fund here where I live (well, I've donated twice only, but that counts). But, keep in mind, this is my personal choice. No one is forcing me to, and that guy became a cop because of his own choices, there was no assumption people like me would give him money. This situation would be like him falling in the line of duty and then bitching because everyone didn't give money even though they could have.


Anyways, here is the reason(s) they didn't just put out the fire and send him a bill (which I still maintain would have been the right thing to do. They are volunteer firefighters, it's not like they were going to lose their income or something).

1) The trailer was already burning and response time isn't as quick as when you have a fire dept down the street. There wasn't a whole lot they could do. Animals had died, no one was in the house, sometimes it's best to just let it burn. No need to charge the guy money for something you may not be able to fix at that point, because then it turns into "THOSE BASTARDS CHARGED ME EVEN THOUGH THEY DIDN'T SUCCESSFULLY PUT OUT THE FIRE IN TIME TO SAVE MY CAT!", at which point people like RObansX come on and complain about how the Neocons were just being greedy for charging this poor man after he had just lost everything.


2) If they allow that to happen, it would set a precedent. Others may decide to not pay the fee and just pay for it when it happens. Like Justin pointed out, this would be like not buying health insurance until you get cancer. Without people continually paying into the system, it cannot sustain itself. Letting him pay at the time of service may have led others to not pay the fee until their house burned down, which means no consistet revenue for the fire dept.



Honestly, they should have put it out and sent him a gigantic ****ing bill a) to recoup their costs and b) to punish him for his selfishness to the community.




I'm not saying they couldn't/shouldn't have done the "right" thing, I'm just saying that I don't really feel bad for this guy who is now suffering the consequences of his foolish and selfish decision. I wish I could not have to pay any taxes for roads, water treatment, fire, police, social security etc and just pay when I need them, but that wouldn't work. Imagine if you waited till you retired to pay for social security! It wouldn't work, for the thing to be properly funded, everyone has to pay during the good times so that during the bad times they have a safety net.



@ "about 3 months ago I started hating the word tea party".


This has nothing to do with the tea party, AT ALL, and is just Joe's attempt at placing blame on a group which he doesn't like but that has nothing to do with this. The tea party (for the most part) advocate limited government, as in we don't mind paying for fire and roads etc, but we don't need an inflated bureacracy that establishes a nanny state where the government can take (at will) all of your civil liberties and invade your privacy/steal your money so they can distribute resources as they see fit.


Limited government does not mean no government, and this scenario has nothing to do with the tea party.


Other than that, the tea party has proven to be nothing but a proxy of the republican party. A group that for the most part is just the far right of the republican party assembling together into a gaggle of ****tards talking about shit they don't know and advocating shit that will not work. Ignore them, and do not allow them to discourage you from the message of having a limited, efficient government that does not over-step it's boundaries (as was originally intended).

[sgreger1]

What goes around comes around, and I have a feeling South Fulton's budget will be scrutinized after this. Occasionally people get curious about where their tax dollars are really winding up. My property tax in NJ is over $500 a month, and we still have volunteer fire and ambulance services, and they're constantly holding fundraisers to try to survive. The schools suck and the roads are full of potholes. I guess I'm paying $500 a month for garbage pickup. Or maybe I'm buying some fatass somewhere a bigger boat.

They do not pay taxes for this. They don't have to pay taxes for fire services, and instead are given the option of purchasing the service. Basically they won't steal it from you, they let you keep the money and offer it as a service. Worst case scenario is that if you dont pay, you don't get the service. That's about as fair as anything gets.

[timoteo]

sgreger. yeah i know i hear you... im just so sick of it. i guess i watch too much news. you know how they carry on and on about things.. basically i wish they picked a different name for there movment. maybe more people would take them seriously if it didnt sound so archaic, juvinille, stupid and generic... yeah i know the history, but this has nothing to do with tea.. yeah taxes but not tea man.. its getting annoying, but this is my opinion.. so dont let it ruin your day.

to every one else still fussing and fighting

i saw house fires that wernt worth the water to put out as the house was already destroyed. so the fire department would just stand around and watch.
also makes less clean up in the end.

[tom502]

I wonder if this was an illegal mexican shanty, they'd just let it burn?

[timoteo]

I wonder if this was an illegal mexican shanty, they'd just let it burn?

lol probably. pinchy gringos

[Bigblue1]

Ron Paul on Alex Jones Show right now, Tune in

[justintempler]

What goes around comes around, and I have a feeling South Fulton's budget will be scrutinized after this. Occasionally people get curious about where their tax dollars are really winding up. My property tax in NJ is over $500 a month, and we still have volunteer fire and ambulance services, and they're constantly holding fundraisers to try to survive. The schools suck and the roads are full of potholes. I guess I'm paying $500 a month for garbage pickup. Or maybe I'm buying some fatass somewhere a bigger boat.

Well considering Obion county residents spend about $500 a year in property taxes, and you pay $500 a month...
You do the math and explain how you can try to compare the shitty service you have with someone that has less than 1/10 as much money to work with.

[truthwolf1]

It was just a power trip decision unless the house was pretty much gone before they got there.

[sgreger1]

It was just a power trip decision unless the house was pretty much gone before they got there.

No, it was not a powertrip decision. The firefighters felt horrible about it but there was nothing they could do. It was already gone. Charging him at that point would have been useless and people would just be complaining about how theycharged him for nothing.

[snusgetter]

All Eyes on Obion Co.
...
Lance Cranick, the fire victim's grandson, says, "I answered the phone and a lady from Massachusetts said I would like to give you all a trailer."

With a heartfelt no, thank you, they now call their camper home. The question whether to rebuild they say will come after they can catch a breath from all this media attention.
...
The Cranicks plan to leave for Texas November 1st, for the winter, after they finish their claim with the insurance company.

============================================

They certainly don't sound all worked-up over the situation.
Maybe a 6-month 'vacation' is really needed.

[sgreger1]

Yah, insurance is going to pay for this and theyr going to be fine. This is a fake hype created by the left to try and somehow attribute this incident to people who advocate for limited government. A new low by any standard.

Next time I get robbed i'm going to post a video titled: "OBAMA Redistribution of wealth: Me getting mugged in an alley"



An interesting question to me would be wheter or not there is a penalty with the insurance company since he decided to not buy fire protection. I imagine the underwriting dept would charge more for insuring someones house against fire when they know that person is willfully denying the fire dept from extinguishing it in case of fire.

Maybe this whole thing is a big insurance scam?

[lxskllr]

The problem I have with it all, is the money was already spent when the fire dept showed up. The cheap part is actually using the equipment to put out the fire. Assuming the fire COULD be put out, that's a douchebag move. If someone paid me for firefighting services, and I showed up on the scene, I'd put the fire out whether they paid me or not. That's just what you do. I help people in small ways all the time, and I don't get paid shit for it. The guy offered to pay costs which is well over the $75 per year cost, so everybody makes out. The fire dept gets an assload more money than they would have had, and the guy gets a fire put out. You also get the added benefit of a learning moment for everybody else, as to what that shit can cost when you don't pay for the service up front.

They have a good system setup, but there has to be room for making exceptions. Only criminals and retards blindly follow rule books. The criminals try to get around the specific language, because their particular crime wasn't specifically prohibited, and retards can't think for themselves. They just blindly follow what's written down, and don't deviate from that one iota.