Tennessee Firefighters Refuse to put out Fire

A Tennessee family says they lost their pets and their home in a fire last week because firefighters refused to put it out. The firefighters instead watched it burn.

Turns out the couple did not pay a $75 dollar fire protection fee for their rural home.

Homeowner Gene Cranick said, "I thought they'd come out and put it out, even if you hadn't paid your $75, but I was wrong."

They called 911 several times, and initially the South Fulton Fire Department would not come.

The Cranicks told 911 they would pay firefighters, whatever the cost, to stop the fire before it spread to their house.

Cranick said, "when I called I told them that my grandson had already called twice and whenever I got here he thought that I could get something done, I couldn't."

It was only when a neighbor's field caught fire, a neighbor who had paid the county fire service fee, that the department responded.

Gene Cranick asked the fire chief to make an exception and save his home, the chief wouldn't.

When asked why, his response, "the city manager will make a statement in the morning and ya'll can see him in his office."

Mayor of South Fulton sided with the fire department saying, "anybody that's not in the city limits of South Fulton, it's a service we offer, either they accept it or they don't."

But for the Cranicks precious memories are gone.

"Things of my mother's, my grandmothers, my great-grandmother's were all there in that house.", said Cranick 

Friends and neighbors said it's a cruel and dangerous city policy, but the Cranicks don't blame the firefighters themselves, but put the blame on the people in charge instead.

Cranick said, "they're doing their job. They're doing what they are told to do. It's not their fault."