Firefighters watched a house burn down

[jnmacd]

I'm confused.. so does he also have to pay for police protection??
I thought this is what taxes are for.

 

[Powerman620]

If he lived in county and Fire dept was in a city, then no he did not pay taxes. A lot of fire depts, city and county run off of subscriptions to fund their dept. If no one paid subscription fees then there would not be a dept.

 

[jnmacd]

Okay that makes sense.
$75 a year.. not a bad price.

 

[FlimFlam]

Well they could have put it out and then charged an exorbitant fee..... much like ambulance services now.

 

[jbarnett]

I'm confused.. so does he also have to pay for police protection??
I thought this is what taxes are for.

Exactly.
Why should we have to pay twice? What a load of crap.

 

[1911user]

I'm confused.. so does he also have to pay for police protection??
I thought this is what taxes are for.

No, I've been following this on another board. They are rural and the only fire service is a subscription service for $75 a year. Whatever county taxes they paid did NOT include any kind of fire protection service, and they knew that fact. The optional fire protection service is provided by a town that is somewhat close. The family chose not to pay the $75 yearly cost then expected fire prevention service to save their house and property anyway. They didn't and now this is a national story.

The fire service did respond and would have jumped in if any persons' life was in danger, but everyone was out of the house so the fire dept. only protected the houses close by that had paid their yearly subscription cost of $75.

In some rural areas, especially in the past, such a "yearly subscription" service was the only way they had ANY kind of fire protection. A rural community banded together and somehow contracted with a fire department that was somewhat close to provide fire protection to paying members. '

 

[Glocktogo]

Well they could have put it out and then charged an exorbitant fee..... much like ambulance services now.

This is what Collinsville RFD does.

 

[Traxxis]

Limestone does the same thing in Owasso.

This is what Collinsville RFD does.

 

[Powerman620]

It would have been put out here if fire was out in county and billed to home owner, Home owners Ins would have paid it.

 

[vvvvvvv]

Obion County had a proposal in 2008 to tax electricity service and use those funds to pay area fire departments for service and drop the subscription-based system, but for some reason it didn't pass. I'm not sure if it was voters or elected officials there, but ultimately Cranick and the voters created the situation.

There are 8 fire departments in Obion County. Five offer services on an "as needed" basis, while three require a subscription.

Even if a lawsuit came from this, I think its a pretty safe bet that the NUMEROUS cases regarding a police officer's (and/or department's) duty to protect could easily be applied to firefighters and/or fire departments.

(My opinion is in greater detail on my blog.)