That's a good question: did Jesus weigh-in on people who expect to live off of the charity of their neighbors?
Too bad they didn’t work out something along the lines of ‘if you don’t subscribe to the $75, and then need us, you will be charged $1000, or something like that.
But then...maybe most people wouldn’t pay the $75 playing the odds that their house wouldn’t catch fire.
Interesting situation.
The least the firemen could do would have been leave rather than sit and watch the house burn down.
Good grief. I think whoever wrote that needs to pick up his bible and read about the good Samaritan.
Would it have hurt the FD to fight this fire? No. Put the darn thing out, then fine the guy for not paying his fee. Case closed.
From what I’ve heard - 3 dogs and a cat died in that house fire!!!
Funny how people like to order Firemen to go into a Burning house - a house that is outside of their taxbase, a house where the owner decided to both drop Fire Department coverage, as well as declined to install any fire prevention system to replace the Fire Department’s protection.
I do believe we are expected to assume some personal responsibility.
But no; let’s demand that the Firemen go into this house.
At their own risk (if they fight a fire outside their assigned jurisdiction, they forfeit medical and life insurance). If the homeowner decides they didn’t put the fire out ‘fast enough’ or caused water damage to non-burned areas of his home, he can sue the individual firemen - personally.
Yep, that’s right. When you are a certified fireman, you assume certain protections. You are protected medically, and have life insurance for this dangerous profession - if and only if you are fighting in an area you have been assigned. You cannot go crusading across the nation, putting out any house fire you see - and maintain this coverage.
Now let’s look at the financial facts. This idiot homeowner took a risk. The Fire Department (FD) is not supported by tax revenue, so they must charge $75/yr to the homes in the area they can support. This idiot had previously supported the firemen, but decided that he would take a gamble this year. He lost.
If the FD had put his home out; who would pay $75 for protection next year? Why pay, if they will serve your home, at personal risk, anyway? So, the FD would go bankrupt and no one would have coverage. It’s just that simple. It takes money to run a FD, even a 100% voluntary FD.
This is a simple test ... do you want a Nanny State or are you willing to accept personal responsibility. In the USA we have the right to be as stupid as we want. It is not the Government’s job to fix stupidity - stupidity has consequences, and this is an example of stupidity in action.
I suspect that this idiot’s misery is only starting. If I were the insurance company, I wouldn’t pay - because the homeowner was probably in violation of his lending agreement in not providing adequate Fire Safety. I’ll bet that there are clauses in his Mortgage Agreement concerning maintaining minimal safeguards against fire, flood and other damage. Stupidity should be painful, perhaps other idiots will learn from this idiot and write that $75 check.
I am curious as to whether they had homeowners’ insurance. It would seem that you would not be able to get it unless you had fire protection, such as, could prove you paid your $75 each year.
I have watched this article for a couple of days now,and heard all of the arguments in another forum.
The situation is a bad one and the solution they have come up with sucks. One must wonder how the argument would go had it been a poor black person’s home they allowed to burn down, but that isn’t reallt germane either.
These people need to come up with a new plan for fire protection in their community.
As a retired career Firefighter, I have seen the ravages of fire. The personal losses that cannot be replaced. Photographs, papers, inheritance ,that cannot be bought at any price destroyed by fire Irreplacebale items.What if Grandma had been in the fire they refused at first to even respoond to.
I have heard all of the arguments and know for a certainty that I would have fought that fire with a shovel and dirt if that was all I had to fight it with.
Sitting there with a functional piece of Fire Apparatus and a crew and watching this mans home burn is not the act of Christian people and certainly not the act of Firefighters.
I dont care to argue this point, nor will my mind ever be changed. No matter how cheap or rotten a person the man was, it doesnt excuse this action.
If even a Charles Manson deserves to have a lawyer, even a cheap sumbugger like this deserves to have some effort made to save his home.
If it’s the fault of the system, Change the system, but this is a sorry sin this community has committed.
This concept is Ben Franklin’s brainchild. He established the first private fire department. Those who paid the fee received a plaque to put on their homes. If your home caught fire, the fire department would come to the rescue. No fee, no plaque, no home!
What’s the problem? A bunch of wood burned. Happens every day. It is not a public problem. It is a private problem. Let it be a lesson.
What if the guy had a nice family car, or truck with no insurance. Auto body guys and mechanics are supposed to fix it with their labor?
He didn’t want to pay for labor. Also, he wasn’t friends( obviously with the firemen ) So, it seems this guy has a problem with social contracts, money and otherwise.
He wanted to live outside the social contract. Fine.
No different then loser, welfare, non working parasites that want all the work of laborers, taken by force through government taxation and derived to them, and usually supported by woolly headed Marxist .
This story is a metaphor for ObamaCare.shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiachSteal from others because of your choice
not to be responsible for yourself.Yah'shua said :
Mar 10:19 "You know the commandments, .... DO NOT STEAL,.... , Do not defraud, ........."
The fire department had to do this. If people don’t pay their fees, the volunteer fire department won’t exist. Everybody burns.
Participation in a Volunteer Fire Department plan is like participation in a health insurance policy. If the insurer accepts anyone regardless of pre-existing conditions(already cancerous or already on fire) then there is no incentive for anyone to buy the insurance until he is sick or until his house is burning. The insurer(a voluntary FD subscription is insurance) could only lose money and could not long remain extant. Every transaction would be at a loss.
Do you have to pay your taxes for the police to respond to a call? What a load of baloney! The state should have a law everybody is covered! If it was your house what then. What if the fire was so bad the whole town went up. A bunch of nonsense. I can’t even believe the reply comments on this post. So if your wife is raped by a gang and you did not pay your taxes you get no help. Listen to yourselves! WOW!
Do you have to pay your taxes for the police to respond to a call? What a load of baloney! The state should have a law everybody is covered! If it was your house what then. What if the fire was so bad the whole town went up. A bunch of nonsense. I can’t even believe the reply comments on this post. So if your wife is raped by a gang and you did not pay your taxes you get no help. Listen to yourselves! WOW!
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26”What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”
28”You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36”Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
What a disgrace, what an embarassment. How could you show up at work the next day if you were a government official responsible for policies like this one?