In the town where I grew up, the fire department had to respond to calls. The reason I remember this is because our middle school had a fire drill and the fire department showed up. It turned out that someone forgot to call them with the drill schedule, and even though someone from the school was on the phone with the fire department only a minute after the alarm went off, it was too late. The trucks had to do a check.
Maybe that was just my home town, or maybe it was because it was 25 years ago. In any case, in some places today, fire service is not only not guaranteed, sometimes fire calls are flat-out refused.
Such was the case for Gene Cranick, whose home caught fire September 29th, 2010. He hadn't paid his $75 rural fire subscription, so the fire department did not respond, even after he offered to pay whatever was needed. His home burned to the ground, and his family lost everything.
A follow-on press conference from fire chief Bob Reavis emphasized the shortcomings of the rural fire subscription model when compared to a tax-based service, but also stated that the subscription model was the one they had to use with the rural areas in Tennessee's Obion County that did not have their own fire departments.
One house in our subdivision had a fire a couple of weeks ago. It burned to the ground. In the days that followed, one of our other neighbors, who was a firefighter himself, told me parts of a conversation he had with one of the fire chiefs that responded to the fire. Both of them agreed that there were shortcomings even in our fire protection system (which is paid for by our taxes county-wide, unlike that in Obion County) and that there would be discussions soon about what could be done to improve.
Regardless of the method by which the money comes in, residents get what they pay for. Sometimes fire protection is tax-based and everyone is covered. Other times fire protection is subscription-based because of budgetary constraints imposed on municipalities by those who influence the budgets. I predict that more and more will go subscription-based as municipal debt starts to weigh on budgets and the economy takes its toll. When that one-in-a-thousand chance of getting a house fire hits you, you're either covered or you're not, and there probably isn't time to get covered if you aren't. The subscription model in Obion County was a “pay before you need it” model, also called a “pay to spray” model.
Here are a couple of tips:
- Don't assume you will have fire department support. Verify it. If you've moved recently — or even if you haven't! — please check to see what model your local fire department follows. It may not be the same as you remember.
- Get a refresher on fire safety. Hopefully you won't be as lazy as we were and wait until a neighbor gets hit before you plan an escape route from your house, get fire ladders, etc. Check out FireSafety.gov for more information.
- If your fire department is volunteer, donate. The more that dwindling budgets are shored up with donations, the better the service will be for everyone.
- If your fire department runs on the subscription model, pay it. It's now clear that some municipalities are defending the model, and you don't want to be forced to go all-in on a two-three offsuit, if you know what I mean.
- If your fire department runs on the subscription model, do everything you can to make sure that you're paid up at all times. Apparently Mr. Cranick forgot. I know myself well enough to know that I could forget, too. Do everything humanly possible not to forget.
- Petition the budget committee? I always feel a little dirty about swaying the vote, since I'm a laissez-faire kind of guy, but getting involved while fire protection is a hot topic (ahem) might be called for.
Any other tips I may have missed?
I work in Public Safety and one of the 1st agencies I worked at had a volunteer, subscription based fire department. I always thought it was bull considering you pay taxes on your home for services just like the fire department. However, our department would always respond to a house fire and put out the fire, they would just bill you or fine you after the fact. I think what this chief & mayor did were disgusting and inhumane. Can you imagine a subscription-based police department?
The subscription based model is perfectly fine in theory, but in practice, there are just too many holes and too much subjective stuff like this $75 no payment leading to the house burning down and pets dying in the fire. I think in principle, the guy should not have received the service, but in practice, the fire department should have acted out of good faith.
As a resident of Obion County and a volunteer firefighter from another department. Mr. Cranick had ample warnings that his subscription was due. Two certified letters and two phone calls to Mr. Cranick with the last phone call saying if it’s not paid by the end of the week you will loose fire protection.
He started a fire in a burn barrel during one of the driest seasons ever. The fire spread to a detached garage and burned 30 minutes before spreading to the house. That is when he called 911 about the fire. If the pets were killed it’s his fault because he had plenty of time to get them out before it caught the house on fire. The fire chief did seek permission to respond but the mayor said, you respond your fired. We still operate a subscription program in Obion County but we go to all fires no questions asked. If you did not purchase a subscription it is billed on a rate per truck and per firefighter and time spent. Could end up costing 10K. We want a county fire tax but the residents of the county don’t so we will just have to deal with a subscription. Which by the way only nets us 20k a year. That just pays our bills and won’t even cover the cost of outfitting a single firefighter which costs around 12k
Wow, thank you for stopping by with your comments!
I still haven’t lived anywhere where this kind of fire protection pricing model has been in place, and your comments highlight that local voting plays a part.
It’s good to hear that the policies have changed since I wrote this originally. Notwithstanding repeated warnings to pay, it’s still heartbreaking to hear that someone’s lost their home. Now at least there will be a response regardless, albeit a costly one.
I know your county appreciates all you do for them! God bless!
JonJon: I can imagine it. All the more reason to get trained in firearms. Volunteer firefighting is amazing to me. We seem to find a surprising number of people who will risk their lives to help others, for free. Will people do that with the police force? If budgets get tight enough, we may have to.
Andrew: I do think in a way that Mr. Cranick was made to be an example. Some of the other newscasts I saw indicate that the fee was waived for some people. At the same time, he admits he forgot to pay.
Yeah, it’s a really tough one. This is a classic debate that could be argued forever. There are legitimate points for both sides.