re: #261 PT Barnum

So if there were people trapped in the house, the fire department should have just let them burn?

Well, they didn’t pay their fee, so they deserve it.

This is all wrong on so many levels. The “teach them a lesson, let it burn” argument sounds great in a college ethics seminar. But, in the real world, not so much: by slightly deviating from policy, the fire dept could have prevented significant human suffering. Why not just put out the damn fire and send the family a bill? I’m fairly sure that, after the fact, most homeowners would pay $75 to have their home unburned and still standing.

Additionally, the county will probably wind up spending more than $75 on cleanup of the rubble, ash, etc., as well as the public property likely destroyed, things like gas and electric meters, phone and power lines, etc. There’s also a major hassle for neighbors, who now have to deal with the eyesore of a vacant burned lot, a cleanup crew, and then the joy of housing construction next door.

These things don’t take place in a theoretical vacuum. There are all sorts of consequences in addition to a family’s home burning down.