Southland Casino honors WMFD

Southland recognizes firefighters who fought 7th Street blaze

By DON WILBURN

donaldfwilburn@gmail.com

Southland Casino recently recognized over 70 West Memphis firefighters for their efforts in putting out the late September fire of the 7th Street building used by Altium Packaging Company as a distribution warehouse.

President and General Manager of Southland Casino Osi Imomoh held a short ceremony also attended by Mayor Marco McClendon on November 21st at the casino in which they presented the men and women who battled the building blaze not only with words of gratitude but also several food vouchers for each of the firefighters of which Imomoh called a “small token of gratitude”.

Imomoh also sent a personalized letter to each of the over 70 firefighters saying, in part, “words alone cannot adequately convey the depth of our gratitude to each and every member of your department who consistently steps forward day in and day out to provide essential services to the safety and well-being of our neighborhoods.”

The members of the WMFD were also recently honored at a ceremony at city hall by Mayor Marco McClendon in which Division Chief Robert Mabe said of the events of that day, “These men do very well. They go out, they put their lives on the line for real. Captain Allensworth looked like he was coming out of the pits of hell when I pulled up. He pulled his men out, saved three of four of them, that roof collapsed with the

See FIREFIGHTERS, page A3

Osi Imomoh (far right), President of Southland Casino, honored West Memphis Firefighters last week.

Photo by WMFD FIREFIGHTERS

From page A1

next five minutes.”

Luckily, despite the inherent danger of what is being called the largest fire in the history of West Memphis, no firefighters suffered injuries that day.