But socialism is scaaaaaaaaaryyyyyyyyyyy. We just want to shove our fingers in our ears and ignore everything that the government does right in our country, and everything that governments do right in other countries that ours could also do well here. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
These fucking morons got exactly what was coming to them. I hope every person who thinks that services like these should be “optional” suffers a similar fate.
On the contrary, the moral argument from a firefighter’s standpoint is to protect lives and property. This “just following orders” bit is bullshit from the word go.
You show up, you have a fire truck and firefighters, you put out whatever fire you find when you get there and let the department and the homeowner work it out. Despite the residents “knowing the deal” the firefighters have an imperative that overrides the politics. They failed to adhere to that in letting that home burn. I absolutely find fault with the homeowner, but the total loss? That’s on the fire department.
Many times fire departments, probably including that one, respond to auto accidents wherein someone needs to be extricated. I’d bet they don’t ask for the injured’s insurance card before they extricate. I know there were no people in danger, so perhaps a better example would be a cop from another jurisdiction watching someone steal your TV, you asking for help and the cop saying “sorry, that’s not my town”.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
And Gonzomax, your statement reeks of ignorance. Fact is, the majority of firefighters in this country are Volunteer or part-time. Ain’t NObody gettin rich puttin’ out fires, champ.
Not only what everyone else said, but the FD made another valid point - if they took money at the door, no one would ever pay and they’d just pay once their house lit up.
I originally was disgusted by the FD’s actions, too. I have since decided Crannick was totally in the wrong. The county made their own bed, now they have to lie in it, and Crannick is lying like a weasel trying to get out of it any way he can.
Should Kentucky firefighters have sped south across the state line to put out Cranick’s fire?
And for those that don’t understand why this is bad:
Say 100 people live in the relevant area, with one fire a year. The FD’s upkeep is light, but still requires $7500 a year. So the 100 customers pay in $75 a year each, which keeps the FD able (and willing) to cover the single fire when it happens. If people only pay once the fire actually happens, the FD takes in a whole $75 a year. It’s either that or the one person whose house caught on fire is on the hook for the entire $7500, and that’s unacceptable.
The visceral “how can the FD charge people like that?” reaction comes from the fact that we don’t see how our normal mandatory taxes are distributed. We’re so used to police and fire just being there when we need them that we don’t ever consider we’re paying in every year.
Instead, since the charge is obvious and not part of taxes, at worst we see it as racketeering and at best we see it as insurance (but I repeat myself, yuk yuk), which still gets a negative reaction because the normal situation is not to pay for fire insurance to simply have the FD come out and rescue your house.
This just happens to be a microcosmic situation in which we can see what happens when a person is able to choose which taxes he’s willing to pay and the consequences thereof. The lesson taken from this incident should be PAY YOUR TAXES.
Well said, Bosstone.
“Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Whoever he called, whoever showed up, should have put the fire out. Period.
I agree with Bosstone, he should pay and he should have paid, that, as a veteran firefighter, excuses the fire department not a whit.
You’re a retard with less understanding of how the world works than a child. Period.
And that’s why “you have to subscribe to receive our services, but you can choose not to subscribe” is an awful system for fire control. When acting rationally and abiding by a mutual agreement results in this kind of situation, something is very wrong.
Yup. Stupid systems get stupid results. But you can’t make people change stupid systems if they haven’t already figured out the stupid potential results themselves until you have an actual stupid result to wave in front of their faces. Now, the next time this fucking retarded-ass $0.13 tax increase gets voted on, the fire department can wave this incident in front of everyone’s faces and say, “SEE, YOU FUCKING MORONS?!”
I read an article with a more detailed narrative of the events but I can’t find it now. 
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of an optional fire service. What an absolutely bizarre idea, I wouldn’t have expected a third-world country like Somalia to do that, never mind the USA.
I’m glad I live in a country that gives human lives priority over money.
I’m glad I live in a country where most people don’t judge an entire nation by the shortsighted policy of a single county.
I’m also glad I live in a country where at least some people READ THE FUCKING ARTICLE BEFORE MAKING IDIOTIC COMMENTS. Nobody’s lives were in danger.
Not in this case, but it’s not hard to conceive a situation where the county’s failure to provide adequate fire-fighting services would cause loss of life.
As am I, right here in the USA. The FD correctly prioritized human life (their firefighters) over money (the value of Cranick’s property) by not sending their firefighters into a risky scenario after establishing that no lives were at risk.
Burn.
(Pun intended.)
That can’t possibly be accurate. It must be thirteen cents per $1000.00 of assessed home value or something like that, which in my opinion is not all that bad, but saying “thirteen cents” is deceptive.
It’s a reversion to the past, that used to be the norm here and in England; which is one reason you used to see more city wrecking fires. If you look at some old buildings you cans see plaques from that period, they were ways of letting fire fighters know that that building had a contract with their particular company so they’d put out the fire instead of letting it burn.
At least it’s a subscription model and not a pay-per-rescue. Now that’s a conflict of interests.
“The Guild of Fire Fighters had been outlawed by the Patrician the previous year after many complaints. The point was that, if you bought a contract from the Guild, your house would be protected against fire. Unfortunately, the general Ankh-Morpork ethos quickly came to the fore and fire fighters would tend to go to prospective clients’ houses in groups, making loud comments like ‘Very inflammable looking place, this’ and ‘Probably go up like a firework with just one carelessly-dropped match, know what I mean?’”