If a structure is on fire it needs to be put out because it's a danger to everything around it.

[Hello_Kitty]

And anyone who may possibly be in it, because you have no way of knowing.

I can't even BELIEVE this a topic of argument here.

Dang.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Put it out and send the person a bill. But fergodssake put it out! eom

[MadMaddie]

8. Exactly. This is not the 1900's

we are supposed to be an advanced society. The Libertarians and Repugs want to privatize everything and this is what we will get if they get a chance.

[slackmaster]

2. Everyone who is present at a fire, IMO, has a moral obligation to do whatever they can...

...to extinguish or mitigate damage from the fire; whether they are paid for it or not.

[hendo]

3. They did put out the field fire

So therefore it did not spread.

FYI to quote someone who was actually effected. http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/local/Firefighters-watch-as-home-burns-to-the-ground-104052668.html

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

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

[Hello_Kitty]

5. I don't blame the firefighters either. I blame the stupid policy.

When a house is on fire the policy should ALWAYS be to put the damn thing out if at all possible. How did they know no one was in there?

[Chulanowa]

11. I do blame the firefighters

Certainly not exclusively - the policymakers get the lion's share of the blame. But no, if you have firefighting equipment and you're watching someone's house burn down... fuck you. Fuck you and all your asshole buddies standing there with you.

That's like watching someone get their ass beat and not doing anything 'cause you're not a cop.

[Liberty Belle]

12. I'd have saved the house, orders be damned.

If they tried to fire me for it I'd have held a press conference, denounced their inhumanity and sued the bastards. That's what real firefighters should have done.

What's next? Tell doctors to stand by and watch accident victims bleed to death because they don't have enough money?

[Hello_Kitty]

15. A fair point. eom

[TorchTheWitch]

21. sorry, the firefighters are partially to blame

I don't care what their boss said. No firefighter worthy of the name would stand around watching a house burn solely due to an unpaid $75 bill not knowing whether there were people or pets or explosives or any other dangers inside. None of the volunteer firefighters in all the towns I've lived in around here would dream of standing about doing nothing while a house burned down.

[Fumesucker]

6. It is not the fault of the city policy..

It's the fault of the county that voted 19-1 against having their own fire protection or raising taxes to cover the city FD.

Ultimately it's the fault of the voters in the county who elected the government that chose not to have fire protection paid for by taxes.

You get the government you elect, in this case wingnuts.

[Control-Z]

16. They were not

doing their job. They were following orders, but they were not doing their job - which is to put out fires.

[leftstreet]

4. We're fiddling while (a man's house) burns

The ruling elite are surely enjoying the class wars we're pertuating amongst our own peasant ranks.

The Democratic party CANNOT continue to choose its values from a vending machine

I'll take this one (this election season)

But not that one (we may lose gays on this)

Maybe this one here (how are we skewing with conservatives?)


We either support human rights and promote the common good FOR ALL, or we engage in the elitist class wars we claim to despise and just set fire to our own fucking houses!

This is the product of a party that waffles on issues like DADT, gay marriage, abortion etc. and it has to stop.

/rant

[ZombieHorde]

7. Sometimes I think people are just fucking with us while laughing their asses off.

Future threads...

The Klu Klux Klan has done a lot of great things for America.

Drilling in ANWR wouldn't be very harmful.

I just read a great book called The Fountainhead, it's really really good.

Thank you BP!

Blackwater has proven the military should be privatized.

Mexico is assaulting us with their malicious immigrants, we need to bomb them!

God bless the GOP!

[Hello_Kitty]

10. My OP has been unrecced down so I fear you're right. eom

[krispos42]

9. This is not the kind of thing you can do on a case-by-case basis

It's penny-wise but pound-foolish, like many conservative ideas.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. std practice is to protect nearby property, save human life, and watch your place burn

[EFerrari]

19. It was once standard practice to enslave other people

and to leave baby girls to die of exposure.

[Swamp Rat]

14. They could have tried to save the animals

:(

[ManiacJoe]

17. You don't risk human lives for pets.

[Swamp Rat]

18. Horse puckey

eom

[TorchTheWitch]

20. I can't believe it either

Although I should. So much of what I read here anymore by professed liberals/progressives is disgusting.