When fire broke out in her mobile home in Tennessee's rural Obion County Monday morning, Vicky Bell called 911. The fire department from nearby South Fulton arrived, and then just watched as the home burned to the ground because Bell had not paid the $75 annual fee for fire protection.

Bell and her boyfriend, Brian Gilbert, escaped the fire without injury, but lost everything. "We have no idea where we will go from here," Bell told KFVS-TV. "We are very lucky it was minutes from getting us."

This is the second time in recent years firefighters from South Fulton have refused to fight a fire because the homeowner didn't pay the $75 annual subscription fee. The department made headlines in 2010 for watching another trailer home burn because the homeowner failed to pay the fee.

Obion County Mayor Benny McGuire tells the WPSD-TV "To me, it's not an issue. To me it's like car insurance. If you have a car, you pay insurance. If you want protection, you pay the price."

South Fulton Mayor David Crocker says if the fire department responded to homes where people failed to pay the fee there would be no reason for anyone to subscribe to the service. "There's no way to go to every fire and keep up the manpower, the equipment, and just the funding for the fire department (without the fee)," he told the Tennessean.

Crocker said if someone's life was at risk the fire department would act regardless of whether a homeowner had paid.

Bell told KFVS-TV she didn't pay the fee because she didn't have insurance, which she told the station is a requirement in order to subscribe to the firefighting service. "I'm not mad at the city, I understand," said Bell.

The station reported Bell told them most of her neighbors in the trailer park did not have insurance because they are not eligible. She did not explain why they were not eligible for insurance.

Crocker told the Tennessean there are about 2,000 people in the rural area who are affected by the subscription fee, and most pay it. "After the last situation, I would hope that everybody would be well aware of the rural fire fees, this time," Crocker said.

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