Fake News from the Shelby Star begins with the name. The Shelby Star is no longer in Shelby. That is our starting point in this article.
The Fake News Article in Question is titled Cause of Weekend Fire is still unknown. It can be found at this link:
The Star article, in part, says the following: Note the underlined passages.
Officials are still investigating a cause for a weekend house fire in Rutherford County.
Firefighters from Polkville, Fallston, Lattimore, Cherry Mountain, Bostic and Ellenboro were dispatched before noon Saturday to a home on Hinton Creek Road.
When the first trucks arrived a few minutes later, they found the two-story log cabin fully engulfed in flames.
“Fire was coming out all over the house,” said Robert Shu ford, assistant chief of the Polkville Volunteer Fire Department. “It wasn’t safe to enter for an internal attack or anything. We had to fight the fire from outside. Being a log cabin, it was difficult to get to the fire because of the thick walls.”
Firefighters spent more than an hour trying to extinguish the fire. Once it was out, they spent much of the afternoon trying to clean up hot spots around the structure.
The TRUE story is much different. It goes like this:
The owner of the house spotted smoke and a small flame in the basement of his newly purchased log louse. The owner immediately called 911 and reported the fire. Then, attempted to douse the fire himself with a garden hose. The owner also called his wife at their main residence on Metcalf Road near the 1st Broad River Bridge. She stopped what she was doing and headed out to the Log Cabin Home.
The Owner’s wife arrived at the scene before any fire truck did. A second 911 call was made.
After 45 minutes elapsed from the first 911 call, a Fire truck from the Polkville Fire Department arrived with only the driver on board. The Firetruck and fire-fighting equipment took more than one person to operate, so no firefighting took place until others arrived sometime later.
The Polkville Fire Station is approximately 5 miles from the Hinton Creek Road location. A second Fire Station in Hollis, also operated by the Polkville Fire Department is also approximately five miles away. A response time of 5 to 7 minutes would have been reasonable under the circumstances. And such a reasonable response time with a full complement of fire fighters is believed to be all that was needed to put out the fire with only minimal damage to the home.
My source also identified another recent incident of a house fire where the Polkville Fire Department took an hour to respond. That home was also completely destroyed.
Now, when you consider that the Star article indicated that fire departments from Polkville, Fallston, Lattimore, Cherry Mountain, Bostic and Ellenboro, were all “dispatched” and arrived a “few minutes later” – and all did eventually arrive according to sources, you have to conclude that there are major problems with the “dispatch” process. Nothing in the complete Star article even mentions any delays or major dispatch problems.
When the firetruck from Polkville arrives with only the driver, you have to conclude that there are also major problems and issues with, at least the Polkville Fire Department, and possibly all of those mentioned Fire Departments.
As I personally remember very well, when the Cleveland County Commissioners held a public hearing regarding raising the “Fire Tax” 75% the Commissioners Chambers were filled to the brim with uniformed firefighters-al in favor of raising the fire tax. Which the Commissioners did raise the fire tax by 75%, saying Fire Department “response times” would improve.
Obviously County fire department response times have NOT improved and such articles as this one from the Shelby Star are just as obviously are put out as a cover-up for major problems ranging from the dispatcher process to properly manning the firefighting equipment.
These are issues that the public needs to know about and issues the Cleveland County Commissioners as well as the County Manager should address and make a full and honest report to the public. And not just cover-up tall tales from the Shelby Star.
At a recent Republican gathering just a few weeks ago, Commissioner Kevin Gordon asked me to give him a chance to prove himself by his own record-instead of just lumping him with the incumbent commissioner candidates running for re-election. I agreed to do that.
So, as I expect Kevin Gordon will be elected to the Commissioner’s Board and Kevin is a long-time firefighter and Fire Department Chief at Waco, I am asking Kevin Gordon to personally investigate the incident I have described in this article and provide a fair, accurate and honest investigation of the facts, problems and issues that are found and what is to be done to resolve the problems and issues.
I will also give this “hint” on how I will judge any response to my challenge to Kevin Gordon and the rest of the Commissioners, Fire Departments, etc. I am NOT interested in another cover-up article funneled through the Shelby Star. Also, I have additional information and facts that I did not include in this article. Therefore, I will be able to smell a rat from a mile away.
