Mayor Robert Craft expressed concerns about an incident involving an airplane and a parasail parachute in Monday's City Council meeting.

"Somebody was looking down from above on that," Fire Chief Hartly Brokenshaw said.

"It was a miracle," Craft said.

On Saturday afternoon between 2:30 and 3 p.m. a seaplane clipped the parasail's tow line, damaging the aircraft's propeller. The parasail, which was carrying two people at the time, floated down the Gulf and the pair was picked up by the parasail boat.

"That is of great interest to us," Craft said. "We were very careful to try to creat guidelines to prevent that from  happening. When you find out something, please let us know exactly how that happened. Somebody, it appears to me, was some place they shouldn't have been and we need to know who it was."

A landmark business, Papa Rocco's Oyster Bar and Pizzeria on Alabama 59 a few blocks north of the beach was damaged by a fire Saturday night about 10:30. Customers and employees werre in the building at the time, but there were no injuries, Brokenshaw said.

"We had a little fire down there and the guys did a great job getting it out," Brokenshaw said Monday at the council meeting. "They were occupied when it happened. In a couple more days they'll be back open for business."

Police Chief Edward Delmore reported that several arrests were also made on some car break-ins during the past week.

"Between our patrol division and CID they were able to arrest five people for breaking into 12 automobiles and  stealing one," Delmore said. "As you all well know, automobile burglaries throughout this county are rampant.

Last night they arrested another one for breaking into two other cars."

Brokenshaw said the summer season has been particularly busy for the fire department.

"It's not uncommon for us to have 20-call days now," Brokenshaw said. "We haven't had that in the past couple of years. We're averaging 10 to 12 calls a day. We have 15 calls in a day it seems like all the time."

But more incidents mean more visitors are here and that's good for the business community, Brokenshaw said.

"I hate that our business has picked up because that isn't good," he said. "But its good for everybody else because it means there's more people around."