Tennessee firefighters in Obion County allowed a family’s home to burn to the ground last week because the family had not paid a $75 fee.

Since Obion County does not have a county-wide firefighting service, South Fulton offers fire coverage to the county residents for a fee of $75, a policy that dates back nearly 30 years. The Cranick family allegedly “forgot” to pay the fee, and as a result, lost their belongings, as well as their pets — three dogs and a cat.

The fire began when Gene Cranick’s grandson was burning trash on the property. According to Fox News, the grandson, who lived in the Cranick home, “started the fire while burning trash in a barrel. He went inside to take a shower and upon returning saw a shed next to the house in flames. It spread despite his efforts to put it out with a garden hose.”

The grandson, Lance Cranick, says, “This is something that I’ve got to live with the rest of my life. To see the house and everything you grew up in burning down before your eyes is kind of harsh.”

Lance Cranick explained that South Fulton would not respond to the fire when he called, claiming he was told, “We wasn’t on their list.”

“I was in shock,” he said.

When speaking to the operator, Cranick offered to pay whatever fee was necessary in order to have firefighters come to his home to put out the fire, but his offer was denied.

Firefighters did arrive, but only to stop the fire from spreading to the neighboring property, whose owner had paid the fire fee.

South Fulton Mayor David Crocker asserts, “Anybody that’s not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don’t.”

However, Harold Schaitberger of the International Association of Firefiighters sees the decision to allow the home to burn as “incredibly irresponsible.”

“Professional, career firefighters shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up. They get in their trucks and go.”

South Fulton’s mayor, however, claimed that residents cannot be permitted to pay the fee on the spot, as then the only people who would pay the fee are those whose homes are on fire.

Addressing the media’s vilification of the South Fulton fire department, conservative pundit Glenn Beck defended the department on his radio show:

Here’s the thing that those who are just acting on raw feeling are not going to understand. It’s $75 at the beginning of the year. You pay it and they put your house it. If you don’t pay it, they don’t put your house out. If the firefighters put out the Cranick’s home even though they didn’t pay the fee, nobody would ever pay the $75. The fire department doesn’t have the money to put out people’s fires for free. What is the $75 for? To keep the firemen available. To keep the firetrucks running. To have people employed to put the fire out. If you don’t pay your $75, that hurts the fire department. They can’t use those resources and you would be sponging off of your neighbor's $75. This is the same case for paying health insurance fees.

Similarly, National Review, came to the defense of the fire department, contending that the incident would likely serve as an “important lesson,” and will probably “save more houses over the long haul. I know that if I opted out of the program before, I would be more likely to opt-in now. As Edmund Burke said, example is the school of mankind and he will learn from no other.”

Evidently, Cranick’s son did not agree with such rationale, as he was later arrested for attacking Fire Chief David Wilds at the firehouse for allowing his father’s home to burn down.

Now living in a trailer home on his property, Gene Cranick indicates that his homeowner’s insurance will cover some of what was lost.

“Insurance is going to pay for what money I had on the policy, looks like. But like everything else, I didn’t have enough.”

Cranick’s wife, Paulette, has stated that she does not blame the firefighters for allowing her home to burn, asserting that they were simply following orders and admitting that they simply forgot to pay the fee.

“You can’t blame them if they have to do what the boss says to do. I’ve had firemen call and apologize.”

The community has offered its help to the Cranick family, but the family graciously turned down the offers, as they are receiving help from their insurance company.

Local news station ABC 7 reports that the Obion County Budget Committee had decided to expand its subscription-only fire service to additional towns.

Union City Fire Department Chief Kelly Edmison objects to the expansion, however, supporting instead a 13-cent increase in property taxes, which is allegedly all it would take to fund fire services for towns within the county.

Edmison adds, “It eliminates this having 911 or whoever check to say, ‘Are they covered or not covered?’ ”

Photo: Gene Cranick near his burning home in South Fulton, Tenn: AP Images

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Larry Brown said:

The rural area around Grants Pass, Oregon are "covered" by a private fire fighting company. The residents pay an annual fee for coverage. If a home that is not covered catches on fire, the company still responds, but after the fire is extinguished the company charges the owner the cost of fighting the fire. This can amount to tens of thousands of dollars. This encourages the residents to pay the fee. That is, I think, better than burn baby burn.

October 07, 2010 | url

Erik said:

... Larry, do you know if your Rural/Metro service has the ability to "force" payment of the owners it provides fire services too? I would hope so, as if not freeloaders could still sponge off the services provided in good faith by the FD providers. This type of ability is NOT in place in TN, the fee system was only allowed 20 yrs ago by a State law permitting cities to offer it where able.

October 07, 2010

Shoal Creek said:

Forcing to pay fees. I don't know why a mechanic's lean on the property wouldn't be available to a contract fire department. It's available to all sorts of other contracted services. I've known trucking companies that have used mechanic's leans to recover expenses for hauling landscaping boulders to a house.

October 07, 2010

rprew said:

At one time... fire insurance companies funded the fire companies. If you purchased fire insurance you were provided a medallion to place on your structure(s). When a fire company responded, they looked for the medallion. If a burning structure did not have a medallion, but a nearby structure did, the fire was fought in such a way as to protect the covered structure. The whole system was based on something almost unheard of today... personal responsibility.

October 07, 2010

zman said:

Protection Racket Sounds like "protection" money. Sounds like some here approve of it. Fire departments historically have been corrupt entities that started fires to assure their future existence. Not much has changed.

October 08, 2010

Vijay said:

The big picture vis-a-vis mediocrity and excellence in America This Mayor of Fulton, Crocker, is full of it. What a petty, spiteful attitude he has and what an incredibly stupid way to finance a fire department. And the fire chief who obeys and puts up with this system ....? Fire departments should be supported through property taxes. That way, nobody "forgets" to pay. As to the general roots of such stupid policies, I see it as part of a much larger picture: if it were not so easy to fire (no pun intended) people in the US, people like the fire chief or rank-and-file firemen would be able to speak up more often when policies are untenable. Things would change for the better if people were not so insecure in their jobs and fearful of displeasing some higher-up and loosing their job. People who do excellent work are fired every day in the US because some boss or supervisor feels threatened or has some dumb interpersonal problem with a subordinate and can fire him or her "at will", i.e. for no objective reason. Very often such interpersonal problems stem from mediocrity on the part of the supervisor and excellence of performance and values on the part of the subordinate. The boss feels inadequate and gets rid of the person who makes his own poor performance so glaringly obvious. So, people just keep their mouths shut and allow bad policies to continue unchallenged. So, let this be a word to the conservative wise in this "teachable moment": when excellent workers are subordinate to mediocre and bad bosses, and can be fired for no reason, this leads to the loss of excellence in the workplace as surely as too much job security for poor workers does. Unfortunately, the workplace is not always objective or rational in terms of promoting people based on their work performance, as many conservatives assume. Interpersonal garbage is very often involved. Mediocrity generally loves its own company and often attacks and tries to eliminate excellence.

October 10, 2010

Zelmer Zootinheimer said:

Property Taxes are Evil I for one found this story refreshing. I was not aware that there were fire agencies out there that were privatized, even a little. The current property tax funded fire departments are another result of an entitlement mentality. We feel we are entitled to some service, and we are more than happy to steal from our neighbors to ensure that we have it. The problem is, if at some point we cannot pay the property taxes, even if we have paid off the home and own it free and clear, they take possession of the property and auction it off. It would be nice if we could just privatize the schools, the fire department, garbage pickup, and everything else so that in the event we cannot pay for them, we aren't guaranteed of losing our homes because of it.

October 11, 2010

Zelmer Zootinheimer said:

Property Taxes are Evil I for one found this story refreshing. I was not aware that there were fire agencies out there that were privatized, even a little. The current property tax funded fire departments are another result of an entitlement mentality. We feel we are entitled to some service, and we are more than happy to steal from our neighbors to ensure that we have it. The problem is, if at some point we cannot pay the property taxes, even if we have paid off the home and own it free and clear, they take possession of the property and auction it off. It would be nice if we could just privatize the schools, the fire department, garbage pickup, and everything else so that in the event we cannot pay for them, we aren't guaranteed of losing our homes because of it.

October 11, 2010