A massive fire last Wednesday afternoon did more than result in 39 vehicles burned, more than four acres charred and hours labor logged in daylight and darkness by volunteer fire department members.

The event served as an important reminder for residents in the Heart of Virginia as to the importance of our volunteer fire departments and their regional cooperation.

The unification of fire departments across Buckingham, Farmville, Cumberland and Prince Edward is nothing new. For years, they’ve helped each other across county lines in their hours of need, which has resulted in the saving of both lives and property.

The recent blaze in southern Buckingham County drew numerous volunteers from five departments in three counties: Dillwyn, Toga, Prospect, Farmville and Randolph District.

These hardworking men and women — who volunteer their time and efforts for the good of our community — should serve as a reminder that working together, we can accomplish much, much more than we can on our own.

Because of their hard work and hours of training and labor, we, collectively as a community, owe the departments a great deal of thanks.

The best way we can pay back these good deeds is to support the departments by purchasing raffle tickets when they have drawings, buying barbecue meals when they offer them, making donations to their fundraisers and campaigns, moving our vehicles from their paths when they’re responding to emergencies and thanking them when we run into them in the grocery store or in other places.