Don't Call 911 Til You've Shoveled The Driveway

It's a Sunday afternoon and there's a blizzard outside. About a foot of snow has been dropped already. You got to bed, thinking about snow clean up for the next morning. During the night however, a fire starts inside your home. You do what you're supposed to do- call 911. Firemen arrive, with their ladders and trucks and the fire is put out after several hours. No casualties, everyone is safe. You've lost your home but not your life.

Imagine further, that a year down the road you receive notice that you're being sued by, of all people, one of the firemen who responded to the fire. He's suing YOU because he fell on your property while attending to the fire. He hurt himself so bad he can no longer work. Many people fear this will have a chilling effect upon the use of entire fire depts.

EPPING — The town's deputy fire chief is urging residents not to stop calling for help for fear of being sued if a firefighter or other emergency worker is injured on the job.

The message came in response to concerns over a state Supreme Court ruling last month that found former volunteer Epping firefighter Jason Antosz could sue a homeowner because he slipped on ice and snow and was seriously injured during a call.

Really? I have no choice but to call for help if I need it. I can't put a big fire out myself.  I can, however, decide not to call for the smaller fires that take a while to put out but can be managed by my self. And I would certainly not be calling the cops in the winter- that's why I own guns!

The state Supreme Court overturned the ruling last month, saying it can't stop an emergency responder from suing “for other negligent conduct.” The court ruled that the Fireman's Rule “permits a firefighter to pursue causes of action for injuries arising from allegedly negligent conduct that did not create the occasion of his visit, regardless of whether that conduct occurs during or prior to the firefighter's official engagement on the scene.”

I believe more and more firemen as well as police will use this to their personal greedy best advantage.  Slip and fall on the ice....get hurt...get out of work....collect Work Comp....then SUE the pants off of the very people they've been charged with protecting. Or better yet, get trained in another field of work, gain steady fruitful employment doing something else AND sue the pants off the peeps/peasants who once depended upon you to save them. Sounds like a deal to me. And lawyers are jumping on this case. I have to wonder how wealthy the homeowner is in this case.