Today's Opinions

At about 5:45 last Wednesday morning, I saw a photograph of the flames.

They were bright and beautiful in their red, orange and gold deadliness, these flames. They were growing and scary and mesmerizing.

Joseph Vance, guitarist extraordinaire and downtown resident, awakened by the fearsome smell of smoke, went into the cold March morning and saw downtown Shelbyville on fire.

We have sympathy for the residents of the Hunter’s Pointe development just south of Simpsonville.

First, two companies come along and say they’re going to build mega-sized outlet malls nearby – one of them in some of their backyards – and now the approval of those projects have been followed by the East Kentucky Power Company, which may build a substation and/or power towers for lines in or near those same homes.

Even the most optimistic among us is fretting now about what will happen to the fire-gashed hole on the southwest side of Main Street in Shelbyville’s business district.

Public officials were as distraught as residents of the four-block incineration were relieved Wednesday morning, following the horrible blaze that erupted. And both groups had real validation for those feelings.

Four men escaped the blaze, thanks to good work by landlords and aggressive police officer Kelly Malone, who deserves our praise as well.