Today's News

The heinous bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday that killed three people and injured 183 others reverberated around the world and home to Shelby County.

There were a handful of persons who listed Shelby County addresses on the official marathon entry list, and some of the finished the event with an awed reaction for what happened shortly afterward.

Susanne Busey Osberg, a Shelby County native who has lived in Boston for 41 years, said the bombing brought back the horrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, to her in a very real way.

As the fire was ravaging several buildings he owned on the 600 block of Main Street two weeks ago today, Jim Reynolds said he was ready to give up.

“When I was standing there watching in front of the buildings as my life was burning up, I felt like I just wanted my insurance check so I could go home,” he said. “I was done, beaten.”

But as they say, time heals all wounds.

As firefighters focused their attention between 610 and 620 Main Street on Wednesday, hundreds of onlookers made their way to the area to take in the devastation and watch firemen and women work.

Everyone, from Shelbyville Mayor Tom Hardesty to Shelby County Judge-Executive Rob Rothenburger to citizens on the street, has marveled at a job well done, and perhaps rightfully so.

But behind those firemen were several other departments and citizens quietly working to help and provide the resources for them to do their work.

Flames leapt high into the frigid predawn air Wednesday as dozens of firefighters from several departments struggled to combat both the flames and Mother Nature at a devastating blaze that destroyed three downtown businesses.
But before firefighters even got on the scene, a heroic Shelbyville Police officer, who had spotted the flames while responding to a burglary alarm at the site – possibly triggered by the fire – rescued four men living in an apartment above a burning restaurant.