Confessions of an Ambulance Driver

There have been a few fatal residential fires in the area that I call home lately. An adult male died as the result of a fire in a large, old house that was converted into a multi-apartment building a long time ago, and a two-year-old girl died in a house fire after her mother left food on the stove and ran after her brother who escaped the yard.

Whenever tragedies like this happen, my faith in humanity is restored. In 24 hours, over $50,000 was raised via crowdfunding to help support the family of the baby girl after their home was a total loss. As of today, over $78,000 has been raised.

But.

In November of last year, a fatal house fire claimed the lives of three people in the same area, one of them being a four month old baby boy. The fire originated from a gas stove top, but the stove was so damaged by fire that investigators couldn't determine what exactly caused it. There was one brief mention of a fundraiser, created by the mayor of the city, and that was it.

One of the things that I hate about in memoriam crowdfunding is that it places a value on human life. The baby girl was "worth" multiple news articles and $78,000. The baby boy was worth one or two articles and a brief mention in the paper. Why the difference?

All that I can think of is socioeconomic. Baby girl was from a white, upper-middle class family. She lived in a house with three other people. Her parents owned the house they lived in. The house was a fairly well-to-do part of the county. Baby boy was from a white, presumably low or working class family. He lived in a house that was owned by a landlord and rented by his family, living with eight other people. The house was in the inner-city, in the middle of the ghetto.

Baby girl's friends and neighbors cared enough about her and her family to raise thousands and thousands of dollars for her. Baby boy's? Who knows. I can imagine it wasn't nearly as much. Even if they raised $75,000, split between the three people killed, their lives were valued at $25,000 each.

$25,000 for a human life.

Money for a human life.

I would never dare to say that baby girl's life was more important than baby boy's. I would never dare to say that anyone meant it as such. All that I am saying is the socioeconomic inequality between two homes just thirteen miles apart as the crow flies needs to stop. There is no way to put a value on human life, but to value one more than another? Simply egregious. 

Rest in peace, babies. Neither of you deserved to die.