Tamaqua officials intend to thank every fire department, business and organization that helped when fires broke out recently in the borough.

“I just want to give a shout out to the fire department on the recent calls that we’ve had in town, and the surrounding communities that came in to assist,” council President Brian Connely said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “I think that once again it proves we have great emergency services in Tamaqua and surrounding communities.”

Connely wants to get a list of the departments that responded to the fires, along with the names of businesses and organizations who helped with donations or in other ways.

The borough, he said, will then send letters of thanks.

“We have agreements with all those folks but it is always nice to send something above and beyond in a letter. So, hats off to everybody,” Connely said.

A two-alarm fire on Orwigsburg Street Monday brought response from the borough’s four fire companies and responders from the Panther Valley area. An Oct. 29 3-alarm call for the 100 block of West Broad Street brought response from as far away as Schuylkill Haven and Lehighton.

“The community has definitely come together as a whole,” Councilman Ron Bowman said.

Borough solicitor Anthony Odorizzi’s office, Bowe & Odorizzi Law, 109 W. Broad St., was spared from the October downtown fire.

“To everybody in this room who was there - Thank you. You folks saved our building,” Odorizzi said.

He was watching as crews worked to extinguish the fire. Aerial trucks sprayed water from above, while some firefighters attacked the flames from the tops of the buildings.

“It’s unbelievable people go on roofs like that,” Odorizzi said. “Thank you to all of you - you saved our building.”

Councilman Ritchie Linkhorst commended first responders for their quick work on the 223 Orwigsburg St. fire. The fire began in the middle of a block of row homes and was mostly contained to one property.

“I can’t believe that they stopped that as fast as they did,” he said.

Bowman said there are times when fire companies might not get along.

“When that whistle blows, this town acts as a whole. Everybody goes up to bat,” Bowman said. “You can put everything else to the side at that point.”

“When you are sitting watching that fire moving toward your building, you’re grateful you live in a town like this. It’s just amazing people are willing to run into that when the rest of us want to run out,” Odorizzi added.

In unrelated business, council made a number of appointments to borough committees.

George Boyle was reappointed to the Zoning and Hearing Board. William Kennedy and Tammy Swinburne were reappointed to 3-year terms on the Historical Architectural Review Commission.

Mary Linkevich was reappointed to the Tamaqua Community Revitalization Improvement Zone committee for a 5-year term.