Fire association sued for refusing to serve
Dispatches
A volunteer fire association that stood by and watched the burning of a house and two _____asinesses in a small town 20 miles southwest of Little Rock, AR, has been sued for more than $1.4 million, according to an Associated Press report.
The association refused to extinguish the blaze because the occupants failed to pay their protection fees.
Anthony Brazil, whose home burned while firefighters watched (see “A Giant Step Backward,” Editorial, FIRE ENGINEERING, March 1985), filed suit against the Salem Volunteer Fire Association, Salem, AR; Salem Fire Chief Ron Courtney; and the Shelter Insurance Co., the fire association’s liability carrier. He is seeking $850,000 in damages.
Brazil and his family were at church services when they were informed that their two-story home was on fire. Salem firefighters rushed to the scene but refused to extinguish the blaze, saying Brazil hadn’t paid a $20 membership fee.
Frank W. Whittle has also filed suit, seeking $564,000 in damages. Whittle says the department ignored its obligation to fight a blaze that destroyed two furniture buildings he owned.
The suits came after state Attorney General Steve Clark notified volunteer fire associations throughout Arkansas that state law requires their members to fight fires, whether or not structures are owned by members.
Courtney said firefighters were unaware of the requirement, and his association adopted a new rule stating that non-members’ fires will now be fought for a $500 fee.
“I think if the majority of the people at Salem had known that this policy (refusing to fight fires involving non-members’ property) was violating the law then we would have done something sooner,” Courtney said.
According to Brazil’s lawyer, Ron Baxter, “ignorance of the law is no excuse. This is the type of thing they should have known to begin with.
“It’s common sense that when somebody’s house is on fire that, if you’re there, you help put it out,” he said, “That’s a custom that goes all the way back to bucket brigades—to the 1800s. It’s a concept as old as the fire department itself.”