I disagree - the fire department will save you or your family even if you don't pay the fee - it's your property that is SOL.
No Fee Paid -- No fire department help
- Thread starter GoodWitch58
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I lived in the country 13 miles from the nearest town for 21 years and never had a problem with loose fires. I used an outside burn barrel for trash, which is what it looks like is where this fire started. Unless they had a wood pile or lumber or additional buildings, why would it take two hours for the fire to spread to the home that the homeowners couldn't put it out. Maybe it was just that far away from the home, I don't know, but it didn't add up.
I read both stories and watched both videos. I never saw anywhere where it was stated that the homeowner "forgot" to pay his fee. I believe they "chose" not to pay and therefore accepted the potential consequences of their choice. Like any other service, if you "forget" to pay, you get reminders. These folks chose this destiny.
Likewise, I never saw anything in the stories available about pets going up in the fire. If it took two hours to get from the barrels to the home, was there not time somewhere in there to get those pets. The pets did not belong to the city, county or fire department. I don't think the well being of the pets was a priority to the owners. Glenda, where'd you get information about pets in the fire?
This whole story wreaks of he said, she said and way too much ego and it's just sad that it has to have happened at all and that it's being used to further divide otherwise very caring people.
I read both stories and watched both videos. I never saw anywhere where it was stated that the homeowner "forgot" to pay his fee. I believe they "chose" not to pay and therefore accepted the potential consequences of their choice. Like any other service, if you "forget" to pay, you get reminders. These folks chose this destiny.
Likewise, I never saw anything in the stories available about pets going up in the fire. If it took two hours to get from the barrels to the home, was there not time somewhere in there to get those pets. The pets did not belong to the city, county or fire department. I don't think the well being of the pets was a priority to the owners. Glenda, where'd you get information about pets in the fire?
This whole story wreaks of he said, she said and way too much ego and it's just sad that it has to have happened at all and that it's being used to further divide otherwise very caring people.
If the cop eating the donut knows about the situation (like if he witnesses a life threatening crime in another county, he should be on it. The flaw in your argument is that the fire department 20 mile away did get the call, so they knew about. I've lived in states where they had enough common sense to disregard some of these idiotic bureaucratic formalities in the event of an emergency. This is just another example of the rigid authoritarian line in the sand attitude that drags our great country down.
All I've seen in print is that they didn't pay. No reason, other than "I forgot" has been offered.
I would suspect that if I had forgotten to pay for my homeowners insurance and had it destroyed by some event that people wouldn't clamor for the insurance company to accept payment after the fact and bail me out.
That being said, there are 2 reasonable solutions to this in the future. One would be for the county to strike a deal with the city and mandate payment of the fees. (Homeowner to county and then county to city so the county deals with non-paying homeowners.) The other and simplest solution is for the city to discontinue this service. Be hard to have controversies such as this if the city just didn't go outside of their territory.
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This isn't insurance, which is compensation for disaster after the fact. This is about a man who didn't pay his fee for emergency services that properly fall within the bounds of civil protection, which are the proper function of government. In my opinion, the $75.00 was really a tax, albeit a voluntary one, that compensated the fire department for services to the public. It is improper in my mind for a municipality to provide anything but public services. He may have elected not to pay his tax, but as I said, it was voluntary. The solution in the future is to make this tax mandatory.
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I would love to see the look on your face as you're driving through Fulton County on vacation when your car suddenly catches fire with your family trapped and 911 tells you they won't respond because you're not on the list.
The municipality provides public services - he lived outside that municipality and so had the OPTION of paying for services.
He intentionally didn't pay to have the fire department put out fires on his property.
So they didn't.
All of the scenarios people keep putting forward do not apply - because if someone's life is in danger the fire department will still act - regardless of payment.
He intentionally didn't pay to have the fire department put out fires on his property.
So they didn't.
All of the scenarios people keep putting forward do not apply - because if someone's life is in danger the fire department will still act - regardless of payment.
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That's totally different from being in a county with fire services. Apples to Oranges. Again...it's an unincorporated area with NO fire department. That being said what if your car catches on fire while driving through? Does it apply only to homes? I doubt it. If your car caught on fire driving through there, you'd be SOL I'd wager...
Like I said...I'm making no statements on the absurdness of it all. There's no denying that it's bat sheet stooopid. It is.
I'm only adding commentary regarding the black and white areas of the legality. Id' be amazed if this was the first time this has happened. If it is, though, I bet South Fulton had a bunch of people show up with 75 bucks the past few days...
I'm talking about you and your car in anywhere USA. According to your logic no one should expect protection unless they have paid for it.