Reply #26: I grew up on a farm, and the nearest fire department (volunteer) intracounty refused to service us. [View All]

[ieoeja]

Two other fire departments (volunteer) outside the county did. One of them was actually closer than the department in the same county. But that one went bust while I was still a kid. The other was equal distant to the one in our county. So it didn't matter to us one way or the other.

That said, I am pretty sure that had the other department announced that they would no longer be doing this, my dad would have happily paid additional property tax to support them. As it was, he supported them voluntarily (it seemed like he had a list of folks across half the state to whom he gave periodic supplies of venison or beef).


Actually, most times it was Civil Defense and just plain ol' neighbors that handled any fires. But those two volunteer fire departments did come across the county line occassionally.


Having grown up on a farm and spent most of my adult life in Chicago, I know the gulf whereof you speak. But it does not apply to this situation. Some voluntarily serviced us anyway. But the nearest and largest city (pop. 2500) in the county, did not. They didn't even give us a buy-in option. We happened to live half way to one county line (and the farm straddled another). So we were just fine. But it did happen on occasion that homes on the outskirts of that city caught fire, and the fire department could not respond. So help had to come from 18 miles away. And when city officials, like cops, did occasionally venture across that line ... boy, did the town folk scream about their tax money being wasted!

And in this fire story case, you have the same situation. Except that there was no fire department nearby willing to help like we had. So, if your post is trying to imply that city folk don't understand that rural folk find this disgusting ... well, it was rural folk who decided not to help! Chicago fire departments have helped out with suburban fires on many occasions. And few Chicagoans ever raise a stink about that.