Brookhaven firefighters were entrenched, battling an earlyThursday morning blaze at Mary Graham’s house at 2455 Kelly Roadwhen water – or lack of it – became a critical issue.

Nobody was injured in the fire, officials said, though the homewas a total loss.

Firefighters on the scene said it was frustrating that theyalmost had the blaze controlled when their trucks ran out of water.The Brignall area is still lacking fire hydrants after beingannexed by the city earlier this year, so BFD units had to workwith what water their trucks would hold.

As soon as the call went out around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, BFDofficials requested New Sight Volunteer Fire Department to bringits tanker to the scene.

Firefighters said in the time between when BFD’s water supplyran out and when volunteer department tanker trucks began toarrive, the flames picked back up.

The Hog Chain and Heuck’s Retreat Volunteer Fire Departmentsalso were called to the scene with tankers to provide the water tofinish fighting the blaze.

“It made all the difference in the world to have the water,”said BFD Capt. Charles Francis. “There’s a definite need for waterin areas where we’ve taken in, however we get it there.”

Brookhaven Fire Chief Bob Watts said the city’s water supplyends at the old city limits.

City Clerk Mike Jinks said a tanker truck is not in the city’sbudget for 2008. As far as developing the water system in theBrignall area, it will depend on how the rural water associationand the city are able to work things out as the city moves towardservicing the annexed areas with water and sewer services.

“It all depends on what agreement there is between the ruralwater association and the city,” he said. “We can’t just go in andtake over their stuff, because it doesn’t belong to the city.”

Francis said BFD is looking forward to the time that the newlyannexed area will be on the city’s system.

“My understanding is they don’t have any plans to buy a tankerbecause it’s just a certain amount of time until they’ll have theplugs in that area,” he said. “Until then, we’ll just do what wecan and request the volunteers.”

While some services, such as police and fire protection, must beprovided as soon as an annexation takes effect, cities typicallyhave five years to extend other services to newly annexed areas.Brookhaven Water Department Superintendent Lanny Dickey saidengineers are working with the city to study ways of providingwater to new areas of the city.

Francis spoke highly of the volunteers who responded toThursday’s scene. They not only provided water, but filled inmanpower support in places to give the city firefighters a rest astheir energy was waning after the extensive firefightingefforts.

“Those guys did a great job, and I can’t do anything but commendthem. They’re at home or whatever when they get the call, and thenthey have to come a mile or 10 miles or whatever,” he said. “It’sjust a situation we do everything we can with the water we’ve gotuntil they get here.”

The next shift arrived just before 7 a.m. to bring much-neededrelief the shift that had battled the blaze for almost three hours.Crews continued to fight the fire well into the morning, includingrefilling air packs and requesting even more water to extinguish ahot spot as late as 9:30 a.m.

The cause of the fire, which is believed to have started in aback bedroom, is still under investigation. There were no injuriesin the blaze.