From American City and County: Obion County, Tenn. — in which firefighters let a house burn down because the owner had not paid his fee — may want to find a better way to fund fire protection services. But, in the end, somebody has to pay, wrote Loveland-Symmes (Ohio) Deputy Fire Chief Billy Goldfeder.

“To be clear, any fire department on any scene should generally put the fire out,” Goldfeder opined. “In this case, I think the fire department should have put it out, and then billed them for all the costs or just figure it all out later.

“However, there is a lot more to this situation. Keep in mind, with the economy and related politics (some places are using the economy as a political excuse to cut fire departments even though they can fund them, as are others that do have genuine fiscal problems), stuff is going to burn down. Even with great funding, stuff burns down. But, to have a fire company arrive and not put out the fire is, as some wrote, ‘shocking."”


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