Firefighters let home burn over $75 fee -- again

By MSNBC.com staff and WSMV-TV
MSNBC & WSMV-TV
Dec. 07, 2011

Flashback: Government Lets Citizen's House Burn Down Over $75 FeeSOUTH FULTON, Tenn. -- Firefighters stood by and watched a Tennessee house burn to the ground earlier this week because the homeowners didn't pay the annual subscription fee for fire service.

"You could look out my mom's trailer and see the trucks sitting at a distance," Vicky Bell, the homeowner, said.

For Bell, that sight was almost as disturbing as the fire itself.

"We just wished we could've gotten more out," she said.

It's the second time in two years firefighters in the area have watched a house burn because of unpaid fees. Last year, Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in a house fire, along with three dogs and a cat, because the fire fee wasn't paid.

People in the city of South Fulton have fire protection, but those in the surrounding county do not unless they pay a $75 annual fee.

The city makes no exceptions.