Today's News

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.

Simpsonville Mayor Steve Eden delighted about dozen onlookers Tuesday night at the city commission meeting by reading to them a letter he had sent to the East Kentucky Power Company, suggesting that a planned substation be built on the northeast side of Interstate 64 and away from their residences.