SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Popular Westmoreland businessman and blogger Ted “Mr Universe” Brown has given firefighters at Savanna-la-Mar Fire Station $100,000 with instructions to have some fun. It’s his way of saying thanks for two days of hard work they put in to contain a massive fire that recently destroyed a warehouse and threatened a petrol station in the town.

The fire reportedly broke out some time after 3:00 am on February 19 and was contained a few hours later. However, oils and lubricants stored at the warehouse fuelled a number of flare-ups until the blaze was eventually brought under control on February 21.

“It is a contribution to the firefighters. It has nothing to do with the fire station. Just firefighters must have a good time with that $100,000. I don’t care what they want to do with it,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer.

He said he is willing to make more resources available, if needed.

“I promise them that when they are going to have it I am going to contribute some more stuff to it because I know that $100,000 it’s just a drop in the bucket,” stated Brown.

The officer in charge of Westmoreland Fire Department, Acting Superintendent O’Neil Henry, told the Observer he is not allowed to comment on the donation received.

However the act is not unusual for Brown, the self-proclaimed president of Westmoreland. Over the years, he has often helped people in need.

“I build houses and give people all the while; I take care of people’s medical bills, and I send a youth to school from [age] two up to now,” he explained.

Brown said he has also made donations to The Manning’s School for the Miss Manning’s competition and to laud a female employee of Doyley’s Funeral Services as Employee of the Year.

Within a few days, Brown — proprietor of Mr Universe Ted Brown Kids World store on Great George Street in Savanna-la-Mar — will also present a bedroom set to a woman who lost everything in a house fire.

The 43-year-old blogger who is active on social media had a word of advice for his peers, some of whom have recently been criticised for their conduct within that space.

“My encouragement to them is just to be fair. When we do our work don’t be biased, because this is an industry where we have to speak the truth and not to label or try to bring down each other to be on top,” urged Brown.

“When you do your work fair and uplift people, you can walk and go anywhere… As a blogger, be careful of the content that you put out because it can come back at you, the blogger, and harm you,” he added.

He also spoke of the importance of boundaries between bloggers’ private lives and public persona.

“Take their family members or kids out of the media because as a blogger we have to be blunt and do some stuff. Try not to put your immediate family at risk,” said Brown, who also warned his peers about publicising details about their children’s achievements.