This is not so difficult as it may sound. Suppose that when John Jones's house burns there is a stiff breeze blowing and the chances are that all the other houses in the block will go with it. All of his neighbors become frightened and work with feverish haste to move their household goods out into the street. In the end the fire department succeeds in confining the fire to Mr. Jones's house and his neighbors promptly carry their chattels back indoors thanking the god of good luck. Now the mere fact that John Jones's house burned down is rather insignificant beside the fact that a dozen families were driven from their homes by the fire. Therefore the reporter would begin thus:
Twelve families were driven from their homes by a fire which destroyed the residence of John H. Jones, 78 Liberty street, at 11 o'clock last night. The fire was at length kept from spreading and the neighboring residences were reoccupied.
Or to take an incident from the daily press in which the neighbors were not so fortunate; although they might have entirely lost their homes:
Twenty-two families in the six-story tenement at 147 Orchard street were routed out of the house twice early today by fires which caused a great deal of smoke, but little real damage.—New York Mail.
1. Death.—(a) Number of Dead.—The most usual attendant circumstances that will come to our notice is death in the fire. Let us say that Mr. Jones's three children were alone in the house and burned to death. Their death would be of more interest to us than the burning of their father's house—and our story would necessarily begin in this way:
Three children were burned to death in a fire which destroyed the home of their father, John H. Jones, 78 Liberty street, last night.
So common is death in connection with fire that almost every day's paper contains one or more stories beginning "Ten persons were cremated——" or "Four firemen were killed——" And in every case the loss of human life is considered of greater importance than any other incident in the story, and the number of dead always takes precedence over many another startling feature. Here are a few examples:
JOHNSTOWN, Pa., Jan. 18.—Seven men were cremated in a fire that burned to the ground three double houses near Berlin, Somerset County, early this morning.—New York Sun.
Three children of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Lindberg, 3328 Nineteenth avenue south, were cremated in a fire which destroyed their home shortly after 12 o'clock yesterday. The children had been left alone in the house, shut up in their bedroom, etc.—St. Paul Pioneer Press.
One fireman was killed, another fireman and a woman were injured and eight people escaped death by a narrow margin Saturday night in a fire which destroyed the, etc.—Milwaukee Sentinel.