Firefighters Watch As House Burns Down

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

that's a state law that is intended to protect everyone on the road, not just yourself. this is a backwoods mandate that serves no other purpose than to pinch pennies. there's no implied moral obligation from a car insurance company like there is from a LOCAL fire rescue team.

where is the compassion, where is the love? america sucks. for being a self-proclaimed "christian nation" it sure doesn't do a very good job exemplifying and upholding the standards set forth by the christ. just put the fire out. you're already there. i could see where if it was just this dude's house and he called it in, and they declined to come out...but they were there and chose not to help someone in need. the chief needed to have his nose broken. if i was one of his firefighters i might have done it myself.

Give me a freaking break with this christian nation crap. Are you joking me? Being christian does not make a person or a nation or anything have more values. I'm not sure if you meant to do this or not, but it seems that you just implied that those who aren't christian don't have the same values and morals as others, which is a statement that I take HUGE issue with. Forget the fact that I completely disagree with you about the firefighter issue, this comment infuriates me.

Oh and while we're talking about your so called christian values, seems awesome that your solution to the problem would be to punch the chief.

i'm not a christian. but am made to feel like a second class citizen by some because of it. the christian right wants to make everyone believe that they are the moral compass for the world, and they do not embody any of the values of the christ. this is the stupidest country on the planet.

and regardless of my religious or political alignment, that chief needed to have his face punched.

I guess we've had different experiences then, because I'm not a Christian either and I haven't really felt discriminated against at all. Perhaps it's happenstance or because we've just been in different environments, but part aside from the occasional anti-semetic comment, I don't feel me religion has ever been a huge factor in how people treat me.

With regards to the chief, I really don't think he deserved to get hit. He did his job, and just like many other people, doing his job made others angry. It sucks and it happened, but I don't think he was necessarily in the wrong. Really, it wasn't that tough for them to avoid this: pay the $75, get what is effectively fire insurance and then get your house protected. I's pretty simple.

[Art Vandelay]

You can't fight fires on a case-by-case basis!

This guy lived in an area outside of their service area where you can subscribe, essentially, to service that is not normally offered there. The fire department, like all other public safety agencies, has to limit its service area in some way or they'd be responding to calls all over the place and be unable to offer decent servcie to anyone. If you force that fire department to serve everywhere and everyone, they will effectively be able to serve nobody; you can't have a borderless jurisdiction. Many rural areas have special taxing districts specifically to fund such things. This one doesn't, probably because people like this guy thought "I'm not gonna pay $75 a year in taxes for a fire department. What are the chances my house catches fire," and voted against it. Fire departments are a precautionary measure. They have to be funded a priori. He should have paid the $75.

That said, I still think they should have put the fire out once they were on scene. I would have no problem with them not going out on the call if it's outside of their jurisdiction, but once they were there, they should have put it out and billed the guy--not just the $75, but for the entire cost of putting the fire out. I doubt that would have led to a bunch of people not signing up for the service the next year.

Also, the chief almost definitely deserved to be punched in the face. I base that on the fact that almost every one of the fire chiefs that I've known have deserved to be punched in the face.

[Omaha Red Sox]

He should have paid the $75.

That said, I still think they should have put the fire out once they were on scene.

^That's it right there.

How did Christianity get pulled into this convo?