Gene Cranick watched as his house turned to ashes while firefighters observed from the street.
He lived near the border between Tennessee and Kentucky, in South Fulton, and that year he had not paid the $75 the city charges people outside its limits to cover fire protection services. When the fire spread and threatened the neighbor’s house, the firefighters did act: that family had paid the fee. Cranick’s house was reduced to rubble.
His son Timothy could not contain his anger and ended up punching the fire chief in the face, an incident that cost him a charge of aggravated assault. The most uncomfortable part of the case is that months earlier, when the fire was in Timothy’s own chimney, the firefighters had responded without charging anything upfront. Gene, however, said he held no grudge against them: “They were only following orders”, he said. The city manager confirmed that the policy exists and is applied this way, with no exceptions for anyone who is not subscribed.
