Watching it Burn: The story of a man, his burned down house, and $75.

I'm going to jump right into it.  It appears that in Obion County, Tennessee that because a family did not pay a $75 fee and because of it their entire home burned down including 4 family pets because the fire department was too busy watching it burn.  In that county people who live outside of the city limits are offered emergency fire coverage for an extra fee on top of their taxes.  A fire started on the property of Gene Cranick and he called for assistance and it appeared it had slipped his mind to pay the additional $75 dollars.  He offered to pay it but was denied that chance to save his home.
The firefighters arrived and watched as the home burned to the ground.  As the field of his neighbor began to catch they even pulled out the hoses to take care of that because he had paid the fee.  Instead of trying to do the right thing and put out the fire and allowing him to pay after, something that Gene offered, they sat there while someone’s entire life burned to the ground.  The pets were his grandchildren’s and even they will be forced to suffer due to the indifference of them.

This kind of lack of love for your fellow man sickens me.  I swear had I been given the chance I would have filled buckets and jugs with water and fought the fire by hand to save his house.  But no!  The people who had the ability to put it out simply stood by because of $75 dollars.  Years of memories, joy and pain that took place between those 4 walls and yet they were willing to stand by and watch…for $75 dollars.

I'm sorry, but I can't believe there is any circumstance where you should stand by and watch a building burn.  I don’t care about fees or any of that shit.  I can’t believe that someone can actually put that before the well  being of another person.  It seems our American dream has a ‘if you can afford it’ or ‘if you pay everything on time’ clause.  The new American dream should be about doing what is right.  Not doing what will scare other residence in that area into paying you.