South Fulton, Tennessee was thrust into the national spotlight just over a month ago when local firefighters refused to extinguish a house fire in Obion County. Gene Cranick, the house owner, had simply forgotten to pay the optional annual $75 subscription fee to use the town’s fire service. He had even paid the fee every past year. Cranick lost every possession he owned.

To make matters even more complicated, the firefighters actually arrived at the scene to make sure they would be able to jump in and stop the fire from spreading to neighbors’ (both of whom had paid the fee) houses, yet watched Cranick’s house burn to the ground.

Reading about this, it is easy to assume the firefighters are soulless villains. To some, it may even seem they derived some sick sort of pleasure from watching a house burn while withholding their power to stop it.

Since the incident, these firefighters have been harshly criticized around the country. The criticism is always some variation of, “Though protocol said otherwise, these horrible firefighters should have had enough moral fiber to defy them and, as humans, stepped in and put the fire out.”

The firefighters of South Fulton deserve no such criticism.

To start, all we are qualified to judge as uninformed bystanders, is their actions. We have no right to judge their intentions. It’s not unreasonable to assume that they actually wanted to put the fire out and were crushed when being ordered not to. Chances are, the type of person who would volunteer to be a firefighter is not the same type of person who would derive enjoyment from watching a fire destroy an entire house.

Who knows what they were threatened with in the heat of the moment?

It’s not like any rebellion against orders would have been forgotten in the midst of the heroism surrounding putting out the fire. If the fire were put out immediately, it would be considered routine; firefighters are supposed to put out fires. The second it was extinguished, the firefighters might have paid a high price for their insubordination.

The same idea holds true in the military. Though there might be many situations where soldiers could avoid a negative outcome by blatantly disregarding orders or standard practices, doing so would have a horrible impact in the long run. Soldiers would disregard orders anytime they thought their orders conflicted with their subjective moral opinions and we would have a dangerously ineffective army. We cannot, in the military, or among firefighters, afford to lessen our standards to include individual moral opinion.

Just as it shouldn’t be the firefighters’ right to make these on-the-spot moral decisions, it shouldn’t be their responsibility either. Firefighters exist to combat fires with water when and where they are told, not make moral decisions.

In the same way, an infantryman should not be required to add his opinion on the moral pros and cons of the war in Afghanistan. His only job is to operate the appropriate weapons, where, when, and if he is told to do so.

The blame belongs to the township for even allowing the $75 subscription fee to be optional. There are already several other services we pay for that are mandatory. Through mandatory taxes we fund our police system. Though the freedom to make one’s own decisions is inherently good, there are some decisions that are so important that they should be out of the question.

The city of South Fulton could have charged every resident an extra $75 on their property tax and they wouldn’t have even noticed. With that, every person would have access to the fire department and the firefighters could respond to every call without having to question it.

Blame the city of South Fulton’s ridiculous policies for letting Gene Cranick’s house burn down. Do not blame the firefighters.

Ben Friedman is a sophomore majoring in social entrepreneurship. His column runs weekly on Mondays.