In December 2007, Mary Graham’s house at 2455 Kelly Road burnedalmost entirely to the ground when water – or lack of it – became acritical issue.

Firefighters on the scene said it was frustrating that they almosthad the blaze controlled when their trucks ran out of water. TheBrignall area is still lacking fire hydrants after being annexed bythe city in mid-2007.

Now, more than two and a half years later, city officials are stillhoping to find a way to put in a fire loop in the neighborhood inthe north part of town. Residents of the area took matters in theirown hands in April, gathering signatures and essays to send to theofficials over the Community Development Block Grants, hoping thepowers that be would put forth the money to protect theirneighborhoods.

Their voices were heard, and Friday there were visitors in town totake further steps toward possibly funding the project of puttingfire hydrants in the Brignall community.

“Well, basically all we were doing today was going through andmaking sure it’s all in the file for the application,” said CityClerk Mike Jinks. “We just have to make sure everything to besubmitted through the application is in place.”

Meanwhile, grant writer and administrator Woody Sample and otherofficials rode through the neighborhoods Friday, just to get a lookat what they’re dealing with. Jinks said actually having a sitevisit is a positive sign that the grant could be apossibility.

“They kept saying it’s just a site visit and there’s no guaranteeof funding, but this is the last thing that has to happen beforeyou find out if you get the funding,” Jinks said.

And fire department officials said a fire loop is a must inBrignall, where the homes are old and many of them are built closetogether.

“We don’t have any water up there hardly, there’s no mains upthere, and if we get mains up there it will help us out a lot,”said Brookhaven Fire Chief Tony Weeks. “If we have a fire, we’reusing onboard water on our pumpers. Once we get those water mainsin it’ll make everything a lot better as far as fightingfire.”

In the event of a large house fire the size of Mary Graham’s,though, tanker trucks from county departments must be called in,which can add a variable of response time, officials said.

“We’ve done it before,” Weeks said. “If we have to we can get someassistance from the volunteers to bring a tanker.”

If the grant doesn’t go through, Weeks said he’s not sure what thenext step is for the fire department when it comes to protectingthe Brignall area.

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see if they get the grant,” hesaid.

City officials have said in the past that they are able to put up$350,000 toward the fire loop, but that they expect the rest of thework to cost around $700,00-$900,000. Receiving the grant,therefore, is especially important to counter the cost of theproject.

Jinks said that city leaders are just trying to fulfill theobligation to provide fire protection in every area of thecity.

“They don’t have fire protection, and the only way to get it is forcity to put it in, it’s the city’s responsibility because it’s inthe city now,” he said. “There’s definitely a need there.”