One more hit on the house fire in TN

[SmileyRose]

Turns out their adult grandson, who lives with them, deliberately set a yard fire and then went in the take a shower - came out and the whole damn place is up in smoke.

The fire chief is an idiot if you ask me - but honestly - if I own a home in an unincorporated part of a rural county with no fire department and I've got the grandson here who isn't exactly the brain trust and like to play with fire - well when the city government offers to come all the way out and try to protect my home for a $75 annual fee then I'm probably smart enough to think I ought to take them up on that offer.

[DrDan]

1. and the fire chief is smart enough not to risk the life of one of his firefighters

saving the home of these moochers

[joeybee12]

4. Yeahm, because all fire chiefs have a list of whose fire should be put out, and whose shouldn't

No, only in places liek these where people are really really stuupid and think PUBLIC SAFETY should be up for a vote.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I can see it, next major flood

sorry, you ain't a subscriber to USCG service (like oh Katrina)... no rescue basket for ya.

This is the kind of a-la-carte government folks want, even here. Libertarian thinking covers a LARGE swath of the US, and goes from the extreme right to the extreme left. And Left Wing Libertarians get insulted when it is pointed to them that THEY ARE INDEED LIBERTARIANS.

[JuniperLea]

11. Well said...

I find it disheartening to be called a bleeding heart liberal... ON DU!!! Can you imagine?

I'm finding this entire situation disturbing. What happened, how it happened, and how DU has reacted. Scary as all hell.

FWIW, I have a friend who works for the Red Cross, and he has said exactly the same thing you just did.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Well imagine if you will

when I got stuck with dispatch...

066 what is your emergency? (Mexican 911 system)

My son just got run over! Quick! HELP US!

Address... inputs into database...

Well Ma'am you did not give any money last drive, I am sorry... but I cannot dispatch a rig... call... for private service...

IT almost sounds like a comedy sketch... alas these days I am not so sure reading what I've read here.

For the record that happened, I would have walked out.

Alas our saying was...

You are not too poor not to help us, nor too rich to never need us...

But I guess these were different values.

[JuniperLea]

20. Even if the fees were not paid on purpose...

I find it subhuman to stand by.

This just may be it for me at DU. I'm taking the weekend off, as I almost always do, and I'm going to think about it very hard. That some people here just can't remove their heads from the Libertarian meme is just too disgusting and disturbing to me. I will either grow a grand and mighty iggy list, or I'll just have to go.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. I got an iggy list

and it includes a few of our resident libertarians and a few of our resident "Marxists."

No, they don't know Marxism either.

:-)

And if you do I will miss you.

[DrDan]

47. so lets say they decided to let their homeowners policy lapse . . .

do you think the insurance company still needs to step up and rebuild their house?

[DrDan]

44. not the same thing at all - and you know it

[rbnyc]

25. Damn moochers!

We should just kill 'em before they even have a chance to settheir homes on fire.

[DURHAM D]

2. "The fire chief is an idiot if you ask me"

what the hell is that?

I am pretty sure you have some facts screwed up your head if that is your position.

What does that make you?

[joeybee12]

3. He's an idiot if he agrees to go along with these neo-corporatists rules

FOR PUBLIC SAFETY!

[DURHAM D]

5. Huh?

Pretty sure you have no clue what the facts are - you just have a vision.

[JuniperLea]

7. Fuck the "facts" if this is about fees, etc.

I'm sick to fuck of being part of a morally bankrupt society, and the lack of compassion here is really tipping the fucking scales.

[DURHAM D]

9. oh groan

You don't know nothin' but you are really really upset about what you don't know.

[JuniperLea]

13. So you read minds now?

You know what I know and what I don't now? Bullshit.

This is not some "bleeding heart librul" knee jerk reaction. I've read it all, and I think the entire situation reeks to high heaven. I don't give a flying rat's ass about your libertarian leanings.

[mediaman007]

15. I think that you have good intentions,

but choose a better issue. This guy voted for no fire coverage two times: once with a ballot and another time with his wallet.

[JuniperLea]

17. I am well aware of the entire situation...

And I don't care. To stand at the ready and let a home burn, regardless of how it was set, regardless of fees paid or unpaid, is subhuman. To say that it was right that the home was allowed to burn down because of this or that piece of information, is subhuman as well.

But go right on ahead and bankrupt your own karma bank by siding with disgusting filth... your choice.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Is he a member of the COUNTY Board?

They are the ones who voted against it, 19-1, just saying.

[seabeyond]

29. ya... all 8 municipals could say FU to the county and let them have NO service. nt

[BzaDem]

10. No, I think it means that the fire chief is, in fact, an idiot. The fact that people here disagree

says a lot more about those people than it says about the fire chief.

[DURHAM D]

12. Ok - I'll bite.

Which of the 8 fire chiefs are you referring to?

[Hannah Bell]

8. i had a feeling that was what happened -- because grandma said

"when we came home" in one interview.

so i figured the grandson was burning unsupervised & not paying attention & started the yard on fire.

and that's why the "slow" fire "took two hours" to reach the house.

do you have a link for that?

[SmileyRose]

14. Heard it on NPR in Atlanta in the car on the way home from work.

I can't remember if they said the grandson is 20 something or 30 something. Said he'd gone to live with his mother and the grandparents are living in a camper on their property.

[Petrushka]

19. Here's a link wherein grandma and the 21-year-old grandson are quoted --->

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/oct/07/tennessee-woman-doesnt-blame-firefighters-who-let/

[SmileyRose]

23. It was a double wide trailer????

Oh for the love of God............you just can't write this stuff. One good blast with a fire hose would have blasted that fire into next week. No matter what they did that sucker will be a total loss, but come on........

Look if the county residents are that poor give them an option for monthly payments instead of asking them to figure out how to come up with 75 bucks all at once.

[DURHAM D]

24. Smiley - the county folks have more money than the city folk.

see Hannah's OP -

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9263353



The county folk simply need their own fire department. But if they did they could no longer mooch off those bleeding heart city folk.

[SmileyRose]

26. I really honestly truly do not care.

Quite frankly the whole lot of them look pretty silly for one reason or another. City and county officials having an over the top rope lumberjack battle royal with each other and some schumck's doublewide get caught in the crossfire.

I'm of the firm opinion there's plenty of stupidity to go all around.

[Statistical]

27. He wasn't too poor to afford coverage....

$0 is cheaper than $75 regardless of it is annual or monthly.

By his own words he expected the fire dept to respond even if he didn't pay.

Why pay for what you can get for free?

[seabeyond]

30. .13 per 100 rolled into tax. would not even be $75. they voted it down. nt

[Hannah Bell]

34. more like a mobile home.

[SmileyRose]

35. semantics

we call them trailers in my neck of the woods.

I also push a buggie (not a cart) around the grocery store.
My meal after work is supper (not dinner).
I often ask "What kind of Cokes do you have." and decide on Sprite.
And have, indeed, lived in a trailer. (singlewide) :)

[Hannah Bell]

37. um, a trailer isn't a house. a mobile home/manufactured home is indistinguishable from a house

once it's set up.

the video of the fire showed a foundation & beams.

"trailers" don't use those.

and at least in my neck of the woods, no one writes homeowners' policies for "trailers".

[SmileyRose]

40. WE CALL THEM TRAILERS

The one I lived in was a singlewide up on blocks. Next door they had a doublewide on a basement (a permanant foundation). In my neck of the woods they are both called trailers.

And that thing we pull behind the truck to carry the riding mower to the fixit guy is a trailer as well.

[Hannah Bell]

39. and actually per this video, they're living in a "mobile home" *now*.

what burned is referred to on the video as a home, & it had brickwork, foundation, & frame construction viewing the video.

http://statter911.com/2010/10/05/two-tales-from-tennessee-we-cant-give-the-service-away-or-let-the-insurance-company-pay-plus-dave-becomes-a-critic-of-the-fire-critic/

[DURHAM D]

21. Where oh where is the "fire" thread counter? nt

[seabeyond]

31. right below you. ah hahahah. nt

[HuckleB]

28. 90!

[DURHAM D]

32. Hey - did you catch the one by SargeUNN in GD?

I didn't see your mark on it. The subject line may have thrown you.

[HuckleB]

33. Got it! Thanks!

:toast:

[SmileyRose]

36. you want I should post a couple more to help us get to the century mark?

:)

[Obamanaut]

42. self delete

[SmileyRose]

45. You should have left it.

[Obamanaut]

46. It was in the wrong spot. I moved it, now it's response 43. nt

[TorchTheWitch]

38. now we're going to debate whose fire is more worthy of being put out

not over a fee, which is bad enough, but now over the reason for the fire.

Smoking carelessly in bed? Let the house burn.

Spark from unknown bad electrical outlet? Put it out.

Jesus Mary Joseph and Fred, stop this sickness.

[SmileyRose]

41. Um WHAT?

No clue where you got that. I clearly said I think they should have thrown some water on it, and I don't see a post in this thread that says anything about determining how it was set THEN decide if the homeowner deserves help.

[Obamanaut]

43. The guy bet $75 (by not paying the fee) that he would not need the

services of the FD.

He lost the bet.