The Burning Cross - Part Two

When the trial came, she testified fully, and several were convicted. I'm not really sure how much jail time they actually served.

      The local volunteer fire department operated like many others, in that people who lived in the town, if they chose, could pay a regular yearly payment, then if they ever needed the fire department, they were not charged for the services. Those who did not pay the yearly charges were billed for the efforts if their house burned. This house was one of those not covered.

When the bill was sent out for this particular fire, the victim's name was on the bill. But, since the victim was now out of it, and I had taken the house back over, it eventually came to me. The insurance coverage figured in one thousand dollars for the fire department. But this particular bill was for just under six thousand dollars. I appealed it to the fire department, because one thousand, or at most two thousand, seemed to be customary in such cases. They held their ground, said they had to come back again an again all day as flareups occurred, though it was pretty well flat on the ground by 9 AM, and the investigators were already sifting through it.

I checked around. Other volunteer fire department chiefs told me two thousand dollars was the most they had ever charged to fight a similar house fire.

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      The insurance company check for the bill that was submitted by the fire department came to me. For it to be cashed, it had to be signed by me and the fire department. I talked to my lawyer about this. He said he couldn't help me. Said taking on a volunteer fire department in court was about like taking on Grandma and her apple pie. I asked him, “Well, what if I just bow up and refuse to sign the check?” He just grinned.

      

     For months, mail contact went back and forth between us. Little progress. They sent me a letter telling me they were about to turn this over to their “team of lawyers.” I wrote back, told them that it excited me to think that they thought it would take a whole team of lawyers to handle me in a courtroom, when a blind and deaf lawyer would probably shoot me down really quick. I told them the last thing I wanted to do was face their team of lawyers in court, but then I added, “I just have to stick to my guns, whatever happens, because someone at that fire department has tried to stick that victim with a bill she would never get out from under, working for McDonalds and raising three kids alone.

      

     I got another letter. Said their team of lawyers had determined that five thousand dollars was the maximum bill they could send out, so they would reduce it to that. I wrote back and told them I couldn't hang with that, as I already had my heart set on getting to be in court, facing a whole team of lawyers! How exciting is that! And, with all those reporters and such who still seemed to be really interested in this case, It would get a lot of press. And, all of Arkansas would be reading about their town...again. I reminded them the time limit was about to run out on this check. It wouldn't be any good in a short while. I said, “Just to be nice, I will settle for four thousand dollars.” Or, if they could look back in their files, and prove that anybody else in that town had ever in history paid them as much as five thousand dollars in such a case, I would happily settle for that amount. I was overwhelmed by their silence about that.

     I continued investigating. Seems the president of the Arkansas Volunteer Fire Department Association had a good reputation for being a good, honest, fair man. I wrote, “ Let's just put this whole thing into his hands. I will abide by his decision.”. They wrote right back, saying, “Did you not get our letter? We're settling for four thousand.”

     We settled up. I still had that lot to sell. When I finished up with that, I was ready to leave that town. Forever.

     I haven't bought any more houses. And, I still have seven units I want to sell, at a heck of a deal. The above story is not my worst experience as a landlord. At least, everyone survived this little drama. I haven't always been that lucky. But then, that's another story.