{"id":323663,"date":"2025-10-22T11:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323663\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:14:16","slug":"dallas-firefighters-broke-down-a-womans-door-accidentally-the-city-wont-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323663\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas firefighters broke down a woman\u2019s door \u2014 accidentally. The city won\u2019t pay."},"content":{"rendered":"

Just before dawn, Deborah Kane of Dallas was brushing her teeth when a deafening crash echoed through the house\u2014BAM! BAM! BAM! <\/p>\n

Through the window, she saw flashing emergency lights outside.<\/p>\n

Startled, she then saw firefighters forcing their way through her front door.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot an intruder,\u201d she recalled thinking, relieved\u2014but confused. Why were first responders breaking into her home?<\/p>\n

Watchdog Alert<\/p>\n

Are you a taxpayer in Texas? The Watchdog has your back.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a story first reported <\/a>by CBS11, it turns out the fire-rescue crew from Station No. 20 on Montfort Drive had been dispatched. But a mix-up sent them to Kane\u2019s house instead of what she believes is a nearby nursing facility, which may have been the intended destination.<\/p>\n

Her front door was splintered and broken, but Kane\u2019s first concern wasn\u2019t the damage. \u201cI just kept thinking,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat if someone who really needed help wasn\u2019t getting it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Promising city assistance<\/p>\n

She overheard a firefighter on the phone saying, \u201cWe scared the bejesus out of this lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another firefighter told her not to worry. She recalls him telling her to contact the city\u2019s Office of Risk Management<\/a>. The city would help her with the repair or replacement, she was told.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Dallas Fire Rescue officer tries to repair Deborah Kane’s door after officers knock it down to gain entry. But it was the wrong house.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Deborah Kane<\/p>\n

She appeared to have a good case. She fetched an estimate for replacement.<\/p>\n

Afterward, she went to the fire station to get a copy of the incident report. She also filled out the necessary claims form to get $4,100.<\/p>\n

A woman in the city\u2019s risk management told her it was Dallas Fire Rescue\u2019s responsibility to fix this. But the firefighter had told her it was the city\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n

After a month of waiting, she finally heard from the city.<\/p>\n

The city cited a state law, the Texas Tort Claims Act<\/a>, that only allows Texans to file lawsuits or seek insurance claims from governments \u2015 for very narrow reasons.<\/p>\n

The claims must be caused by property damage caused by a city employee\u2019s wrongful or negligent operation of a motor-driven vehicle or motorized equipment.<\/p>\n

In a letter, the city claimed that her loss was not caused by a city employee\u2019s wrongful or negligent operation or use of a motorized vehicle.<\/p>\n

The letter concluded, \u201cThe city of Dallas regrets to inform you that your claim is denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

I placed calls to Dallas Fire Rescue and the Office of Risk Management, but no one returned my calls.<\/p>\n

King does no wrong<\/p>\n

This Texas tort law is based on English common law that \u201cThe King could do no wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

For political subdivisions this is called \u201cgovernmental immunity<\/a>,\u201d and for state law, it\u2019s called \u201csovereign immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

I learned about this governmental loophole 15 years ago, when I wrote about a preacher whose car was struck by a falling streetlight. His car was badly damaged, but the city of Fort Worth refused to pay.<\/p>\n

A city spokesperson at the time explained, \u201cJust like every other city in Texas, our liability is determined by state law. That law is in place to protect the public funds belonging to our taxpayers. Disregarding this law would obviously set a precedent with the possibility of great costs to our taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are Kane\u2019s options? She has so few. She could go to small claims court, but the possibility is strong that a Justice of the Peace could toss the case out because of the immunity law.<\/p>\n

She could try to hire a lawyer and fight on the grounds of negligence \u2015 not the firefighters, but perhaps the dispatcher who sent them to the wrong address. But what lawyer wants to go to court to help a client recover a paltry $4,000?<\/p>\n

She could also make a claim on homeowners\u2019 insurance. But that doesn\u2019t make sense because her deductible is $4,000. <\/p>\n

In the end, sadly, she\u2019s likely to be left holding the bill\u2014 another Texan caught in a system designed to protect the government, not the governed.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the lock Dallas Fire Rescue broke when entering the wrong house on an emergency in 2025.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Deborah Kane<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just before dawn, Deborah Kane of Dallas was brushing her teeth when a deafening crash echoed through the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,11890,1596,5025,4630,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,9235],"class_list":{"0":"post-323663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-commentary","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-fire","12":"tag-legal","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-watchdog"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417532152761319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}