You didn't pay the $75? Your house can burn then.

[Ryan]

Lol, this is ridiculous.

Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.

Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat.

"They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

"We wasn't on their list," he said the operators told him.

Cranick, who lives outside the city limits, admits he "forgot" to pay the annual $75 fee. The county does not have a county-wide firefighting service, but South Fulton offers fire coverage to rural residents for a fee.

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.

The fire fee policy dates back 20 or so years.

"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.

Firefighters did eventually show up, but only to fight the fire on the neighboring property, whose owner had paid the fee.

"They put water out on the fence line out here. They never said nothing to me. Never acknowledged. They stood out here and watched it burn," Cranick said.

South Fulton's mayor said that the fire department can't let homeowners pay the fee on the spot, because the only people who would pay would be those whose homes are on fire.

Cranick, who is now living in a trailer on his property, says his insurance policy will help cover some of his lost home.

"Insurance is going to pay for what money I had on the policy, looks like. But like everything else, I didn't have enough."

Cranick's case has not only sparked debate over the annual fee policy but strong emotions. WPSD-TV, an NBC affiliate in Paducah, Ky., reported that South Fulton police arrested one of Cranick's sons, Timothy Allen Cranick, on an aggravated assault charge after the Sept. 29 blaze.

Police told WPSD that the younger Cranick was upset firefighters weren't putting out the fire and attacked the South Fulton Fire Chief David Wilds back at the firehouse. WPSD-TV reported that Wilds was treated and released and will recover.

[Possible]

W-O-W.

This is why the government is wickawicka wack. lmao at arresting his son though, he better have went to seek retribution for this. This shit is principle here. This is nothing but straight up extortion...they need to burn that whole fuckin town down.

Edit: Ry gimme a link to that, I wanna post that somewhere else.

[Ryan]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346...ife/?gt1=43001

There ya go, man.

Yeah this is ridiculous. Over $75. I understand it's a "Service" but fuck, what if his kids were inside that house? Would they still have just let it burn? Like what the fuck.

[Possible]

Word, thats just fucked up so many levels. thanks for the link.

[FPS Cuba]

lol this is close to my school actually. like 30 mins if that.

[Tein]

South Fulton's mayor said that the fire department can't let homeowners pay the fee on the spot, because the only people who would pay would be those whose homes are on fire.

Lol... damn that is pretty hilarious... sucks for that guy though, ruined.

[FPS Cuba]

that's not hilarious. that's called simple logic.

[Tein]

it is actually pretty hilarious considering the redneck town you live in makes people pay an annual fee just to get any kind of service out of the fuckin fire department, paid your fee?

[FPS Cuba]

i dont live in a redneck town lol. i live in a college town.. because i attend college.. i'm glad i'm talking to an idiot though. before you made broad assumptions to make your point valid i was afraid you might actually be able to present a viable argument. but you're a moron obviously lol.

and you pay for the same service idiot. it's called city tax lol. the guy lived in the middle of no where beyond any city limits therefore needed to pay a simple 75$ fee to use the services that YOU pay for yearly as well.

the entire thing might be hilarious. but what you quoted and laughed at was simple reasoning lol. if they allowed it then none of those people WOULD pay it unless they NEEDED it. but i guess you don't even realize that you pay for the same services everytime you pay taxes. unless you are a worthless person who still lives in your mom's basement. then she probably pays for it.

[Caesar Augustus]

A fee for emergency services seems retarded.

[Tein]

just saying... you live where the chupacabras thrive man
i wasn't really laughing at the overall story just at the simple
fact that mayor mccheese was such a dick about it and no
sir i live in a urban area i do not pay such fees you speak of

[FPS Cuba]

A fee for emergency services seems retarded.

not really. how else are the people performing these services gonna receive payment ?

if you get shot and an ambulance picks you up to rush you to the ICU are you not billed for even the ambulance ride ?

i'm not saying that them watching the guy's house burn down was awful and i'm sure there's gonna be something done due to national media attention.

but the process of paying for services is not retarded nor flawed. it's economics ya know.

[FPS Cuba]

nice fail sir.

[Oxymoron]

that is fucked up, over 75 dollars too, mother fuckers, that is just straight up retarded.

[Possible]

i dont live in a redneck town lol. i live in a college town.. because i attend college.. i'm glad i'm talking to an idiot though. before you made broad assumptions to make your point valid i was afraid you might actually be able to present a viable argument. but you're a moron obviously lol.

and you pay for the same service idiot. it's called city tax lol. the guy lived in the middle of no where beyond any city limits therefore needed to pay a simple 75$ fee to use the services that YOU pay for yearly as well.

the entire thing might be hilarious. but what you quoted and laughed at was simple reasoning lol. if they allowed it then none of those people WOULD pay it unless they NEEDED it. but i guess you don't even realize that you pay for the same services everytime you pay taxes. unless you are a worthless person who still lives in your mom's basement. then she probably pays for it.

You are referring to two different things.
Tax (from the Latin taxo; "I estimate", which in turn is from tangō; "I touch") is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law.

A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.

It really depends where you live. For instance, in Pennsylvania you pay Federal, State and Local municipality or towns/township. In addition to this you also pay a tax to the school.

It also states that simply because he is rural he is not receiving these services. In these small towns most if not all have volunteer fire stations. I won't even touch on the fact about how much money they raise elsewhere. I checked, South Fulton has 2100 people. It does not say if they in fact pay for this service, however based on something else I found I'm quite sure its made up in other areas. There is a whole file about this place.

City property taxes are up 93 percent.

There's one other thing that explains their acceptance: the mayor, the city manager, and most of the city council is working for free.

Ok so whats wrong with this picture? Where is the money going? I could bat around theories all day but its irrelevant to the fact here. How are you going to work for a town that has an obligation to be an infrastructure and order that does not serve its people? I realize the person lived out of the city limits- also irrelavent. That person lives in the county, the state the US. They are people we put in charge to enlist a standard. You bet your ass the police would show up if they were called to an ongoing crime. Why? They are basically saying to them you have to pay a fee to be part of our society so why should law enforcement go there and enforce THEIR laws? This is a place where we as citizens are obligated to abide by standards and not expect something as simple as help to put out a fire that in no means the homeowner has any way of putting out? That isn't right. I don't feel like saying anything else.