Posted on 12/06/2011 4:33:24 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings but you should know the details of this situation before you criticize unpaid volunteers who put it all on the line all the time.
An unincorporated area is a place with no government below the county level. Generally they rely on state police for law enforcement. They contract most things, trash removal, public schooling, any kind of service you can think of, the county maintains the roads and parks (if they even have parks) bare bone government but that is rural life, taxes are low. If they incorporate into a township, then they pay township taxes and it is up to the township to provide fire service which may include forming their own fire company or contracting it to another willing fire company. It is not up to city A to supply free services to rural unincorporated hamlet B.
Thank you for your 24 years of service. I personally would have a hard time letting someone lose their house inspite of their lack of priority. However, you lack the information needed to make your claims of fire fighter neglect so there is no point in going any further with you on this topic. Have a great day!
Um, you didn't read the article.
However, Bell and her husband were forced to walk into the burning home in an attempt to retrieve their own belongings.
And there's no mention that they knew about the previous incident or that “they thought it would never happen to them”
You are right, I dont have all the info. I just think it smells bad. And I hope we are not disagreeing over a misunderstanding. I am not saying anything about fire fighters in general except I would expect only the highest standards of them.
I am saying that, in the article cited, something is very wrong that the house was allowed to burn down for the stated reason. As a matter of fact, I would question that determining the state of payment or non-payment is not the task at hand when the house is on fire.
There may be some insurance issues or liability issues that led to this, I dont know. But firefighter go out of district for many reasons so I am sure that there must be some mechanism for them to deal with the situation.
I appreciate your thank you and I also appreciate your own form of service. And I hope your day is great as well.
I am floored to read people on here justifying not doing your “duty” over a $75 fee. My head is spinning.
No money? Too bad. No bailouts for the trailer trash!
Oh, Merry Christmas!
Where I grew up we had range fires. No “fire department” although there was scattered fire fighting equipment that locals could run get in the case of a fire. We all went out, with our own vehicles, brooms, etc, and fought these fires, little kiddos (of which I was one) up. We gathered around neighbors homesteads to save them. We never asked for payment. We never asked for reimbursement for the lost tires or brooms, etc. We never considered if the neighbor whose home we were saving was a “good” neighbor or not.
I did not criticize unpaid volunteers. I know quite a few volunteers from my hometown and would never criticize them.
As I stated, we could have had a civil discussion, but your tone seems to indicate we cannot.
Rush always says “have a go to person for information”. You could have been one of those people who informed me how unincorporated areas work.
Instead you decided to call me names. And no, my feelings were not hurt. Calling me stupid made me realize YOU made the assumption that I was fully aware of how unincorporated areas work. I do not.
You could have informed me, enlightened me from my sheltered world. Instead, you just called me names.
Meanwhile, illegal aliens at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, are dropping 900 anchor babies per month, all on the tax payers backs. It's the American way...Don't like it? Too bad.
Don't be heartless!
As goes the old adage: There are 3 sides to every story, the homeowner’s side, the fire department’s side, and the truth.
There may be three (or more) sides to the ‘story’ but there’s only one set of facts.
The facts are very simple: those living outside the city limits whose taxes do not include fire protection have to pay $75/year for that fire protection. If they choose not to pay, as the homeowner(s) here did, they don’t get fire protection. The homeowner(s) took a big gamble and lost. They knew full well what was required and assumed it wouldn’t happen to them. It did. Unfortunate, yes, but it was a conscious decision the homeowner(s) made.
Try calling GEICO or State Farm for auto insurance AFTER you’ve totaled your car.
They expected to get free services from another city and didn’t even want to cough up $75 for fire service. The homeowners were greedy. They probably spend 75 a month on smokes alone! I bet they spent a bundle on black friday so they don’t have to pay for fire protection. they had the money but wont pay unless by force. they are financially irresponsible and dont want to prioritize.
that rinky dink trailer couldn’t be saved even if the firefighters wanted. it was a lost cause anyway.
Untwist your panties and consider this. I don’t know for sure but I can make a general statement about trailer fires. The way they are constructed which is not very robust and since they use a lot of synthetic materials, they tend to burn rather quickly. Assuming that the fire building is 15 miles from the fire station and the volunteers are not sitting around waiting for the call, you know at home doing typical family, home and work related activities,we could hopefully agree that from the time of dispatch until the time arriving on scene would be 20-25 minutes? Does that seem reasonable to you?
Imagine then if it takes 25 minutes to get on-scene how much progress the fire has made. Probably there is nothing left to save at this point. A tough break and hard reality but structure fires move quickly and trailers don’t have the fire rating that a regular house does.
So this whole arguement is really over a pile of wet ashes vs. a pile of dry ashes. That is really basically what it comes down to. Really, if you want to live in a trailer and you desire a positive outcome in the event of fire, locate your trailer within a mile of the fire station and install a sprinkler system.
You assume we ALL know about trailers. We DO NOT. Instead of being such a pompous a$$, educate us, tell us about them instead of insulting fellow FReepers who may not be aware of these things. You "speak" as if you claim to know all about trailers. Instead of downing FReepers, enlighten us, without the snide comments and insults. Education is key. You are certainly NOT providing that key.
No, they don't pay taxes, they are outside the service area and are untaxed, but they can subscribe for a fee.
Mr. Fatboy, sir, that was an awesome rant. Kudos!
No Pre-existing conditions heh?
Nope. What makes THIS story so hard to understand is that the same thing happened nearby last year. All homeowners were on notice of what would happen, and they chose not to buy that ‘insurance’ anyway.
so even if someone was dying in there they still wouldnt save them,what is this world coming to when a human thinks more about the dollar than family
The structure involved was a trailer in which case its a total loss even before the first engine leaves the station.
I noticed some on here claiming that the department is union... The department is a volunteer one and more than likey non-union.
They responded and stayed on scene to ensure that the fire didnt spread to other structures or put lives in danger. Now IF lives or other structures were in danger, they would have put out the fire.
As far as taxes paying for the fire department, most of the funding for volly departments come from the aforementioned fees as well as other sources such as fund raisers (bbq sales, etc).
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