>Thankfully, rarely has Brookhaven seen a fire the magnitudeof the blaze that claimed several downtown businesses Thursdaymorning.

The firefighting effort took all the city department’s personneland many volunteers from surrounding county departments. Somevolunteers who were not on the downtown scene manned the city’sthree fire stations in order to respond to other emergencies ifthey had arisen.

Meanwhile, police department, hospital and other emergencyresponse personnel were on the scene doing their jobs remarkablywell and assisting wherever needed.

The overall response resulted in no major injuries and no majorproblems with traffic or other situations. All responders toThursday’s events deserve much praise for their high level ofservice and jobs well done.