Very few people (except for Glenn Beck) agreed with that department did. I was a voly fire fighter myself and I never met anyone in my time in that department that would have stood idle with a structure fire (or
medical, or anything else). The national associate of fire fighters condemned it as one of the worst things a fire
rescue service has done in the country in recent memory and everyone involved should resign or be fired.
It was a very isolated incident in a very rural town with very poor people. In towns like that there's usually more going on than gets in the news (like the fire chief who called the shot used to date the guy's wife or whatever), and you can imagine the caliber of fire chief at a voly station in a town with a median
household income of $22k.
It is in no way indicative or emblematic of fire rescue going on anywhere else in the country. In fact, it's the very old way that everyone (going back to Rome) bought fire protection. The fire brigades were private companies and you bought a little
bronze emblem you put on your fence post from them every year. If there was a fire the brigade would show up and if you had the emblem they'd put it out. If not, tough luck.
It didn't take too long to figure out that that the cost of burning homes, homeless people, inability to stay in the
work place, and lowered property values is far less than the cost of putting out a structure fire. And that's even before you get to the question of morality.
For any of us who served in the military, I myself did not fight for a country that would let someone's home burn down. If the guy is late on fees/taxes, you put the fire out then put him in collections or put a lien on him. But anyone who thinks that from a fiscal prospective it makes sense to privatize and allow opting-out of fire rescue
service, they've never done a shred of
research into the
history of fire fighting or been a part of a unit.
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