It's the kind of thing you'd expect to happen in a really dystopian movie about a collapsed civilization. Yesterday, a Tennessee fire department drove out to a woman's home and watched it burn to the ground because she hadn't paid a $75 fire department fee.
The South Fulton Fire Department made national news last year after they refused to put out a house fire due to an unpaid fire subscription fee, and it appears that policy has not changed. Homeowner Vicky Bell watched her home burn to the ground on Monday while firefighters stood behind her looking on, according to WPSD-TV.
While the city provides fire service free of charge to its residents, it requires an annual $75 fee for homeowners who live in unincorporated areas of Obion County — which doesn't have its own fire department.
Firefighters said that Bell should have known about the policy when she called the fire department, because of the case last year.
I'm trying to figure out whether I want to see this scene show up in a movie directed by Michael Bay or Ridley Scott. There's fire, but there's also horrific desolation and bleak inhumanity. So hard to pick.
Photo by Paul Wellman