Last week’s fire in the High-Rise Apartments on West Fifth Street could have been worse.

Much, much worse. Those who want proof need only Google search high-rise apartment fire to see just how bad Monday’s fire could have been.

Those worst-case scenarios were avoided largely due a little bit of good luck and, more importantly, the efforts of Jamestown police, firefighters and responding EMTs.The luck is that the fire didn’t spread quickly beyond the seventh-floor apartment where it started. But more important is the actions of those who first responded to the scene. They acted quickly and decisively, rushing into the building and making countless trips up and down the apartment building stairs helping evacuate senior citizens, many of whom needed help to quickly get out of the building. Quick thinking and good training helped prevent the fire from spreading and more injuries amongst the building’s residents.

Let’s not forget those who responded from the Carroll and Ellicott police department, Celoron volunteer firefighters, ALSTAR ambulance and Chautauqua County EMS fly car EMTs, all of whom played important roles in Monday’s emergency.

There will be budget disagreements over how much public safety the city can afford. That is unavoidable in a city with as checkered a financial history as Jamestown has had over the past three decades. But those disagreements shouldn’t cloud the fact that Jamestown has a well trained and dedicated group of firefighters and police officers who think nothing of putting their bodies at risk to help the public they serve.

The image of firefighters, police officers and EMTs running into a burning building, knowing the fire may spread quickly from the apartment where it started, to evacuate 90 senior citizens is proof of that.