A Tennessee man watched in horror last week as flames consumed his house. Also watching? The local subscription-based fire department. The man had not paid his $75 firefighting fee, so the firemen would not lift a finger or a hose.
Only after the fire spread to his neighbor’s field would the firemen even respond to his 911 calls. Once there, they only put out the field fire as his house continued to burn to a crisp. His neighbor had paid his firefighting fee.
“I thought they’d come out and put it out, even if you hadn’t paid your $75, but I was wrong,” the hapless homeowner told reporters.
The man offered to pay them the fee right then and there, or however much it took to get them to put out the fire, but was refused. The man lives in a county that has no fire protection. The nearby town offers fire protection to non-residents on a per-contract basis.
“Anybody that’s not in the city of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer, either they accept it or they don’t,” the mayor told WPSD.
Later someone went to the fire station and assaulted one of the fire fighters.
Firefighters watch as home burns to the ground [WPSD] (Thanks to Justin!)
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Oh well, their loss. They didn’t want to pay the fee, then they didn’t want the protection. There are plenty of other cities that don’t charge a fee for firefighters, but if you’re moving somewhere that you know has that fee, then why skimp out on it? Besides, $75/year? He couldn’t pay THAT?!
And that’s what life is like when the libertarians and tea party have stripped government services to the bone and everything is pay as you go.
Although I think this is horrific, and that this is a prime example of why you can’t de-socialize everything (medical care included in my opinion) – a person must always deal with the reality they are living in, not the reality they wish they were in. If I were living in that area, I would be pissed as hell to have to pay for subscription-based fire protection – knowing that it goes against everything in my being – but I would sure as hell pay it. This guy really pisses me off because he forces me to side with nut jobs.
This is the best argument for having fire services paid at your state/federal level. I live in the UK and London has had a legislated fire service since 1865, with Edinburgh first in 1824 the rest of the country was covered in 1938 (just before WW2!) though a lot of towns (1600+) had fire services before 1938.
I could understand this, maybe, if it was a volunteer fire department and the fire fighters didn’t get a salary. I’m sure these “fire fighting professionals” get a salary for showing up at work, and their job is to put out fires. That’s what they get paid to do. Maybe they don’t get a salary and get paid just from subscriptions ? Not likely.