Overcoats used as life nets saved the lives of a dozen women and children in a fire of incendiary origin in the three-story frame tenement house at 137 Havemeyer avenue, Brooklyn, to-day, etc.—New York Mail.
4. Property Threatened.—Death and injury are the commonest unexpected circumstances in fire stories, but they are not the only ones that may be worth featuring. There is an inconceivable number of things that may happen at a fire and overshadow all interest in the fire itself. A good feature may be found in the property that is threatened. Often the fire in itself is insignificant, but because of a high wind or other circumstances it threatens to spread to neighboring buildings or to devastate a large area. In such a case the amount of property threatened or endangered deserves a place in the very first line, especially if it exceeds the amount of property actually destroyed and if it can be put in a striking way; i. e., the entire waterfront district, or twenty-five dwelling houses, or $5,000,000 worth of property. When contrasted with the small amount of damage actually done, the amount that is threatened becomes more important. Thus:
Fire that for a time threatened $2,000,000 worth of property destroyed $15,000 worth of lumber owned by the Milwaukee Lumber Company, 725 Clinton street, yesterday....
The territory between Mitchell street and the Kinnickinnic river and Reed street, to the lake, containing manufactories, dwellings and stores, was menaced.—Milwaukee News.
5. Fire Fighting.—Not unusually a serious fire results from the fact that it was not checked for some reason or other during its earlier stages. Perhaps the whole thing might have been avoided, or, on the contrary, a big fire may be extinguished with unexpected ease or unusual skill. In rare cases this matter of very efficient or very inefficient fire fighting is of sufficient importance to take the first place in the lead. For example:
Almost total lack of water pressure is blamed for the big loss in a fire started by a firebug to-day in the five-story factory building of Lamchick Brothers, manufacturing company, 400-402 South Second street, Williamsburg.—New York Mail.
Rotten hose, which burst as fast as it was put in use, imperiled the lives of more than a score of firemen to-day at a blaze which swept the three-story frame flat house at Third avenue and Sixty-seventh street, Brooklyn, from cellar to roof, etc.—New York Mail.
6. Crowd.—Not uncommonly in the city a tremendous crowd gathers to watch a fire and blocks traffic for hours. In the absence of other significant incidents—death, great loss, etc.—the reporter may begin his story with an account of the crowd present or the blockade of traffic. Such a beginning should always be used only as a last resort when a fire has no other interesting phase, for crowds always gather at fires and only a very serious blocking of traffic is worth reporting. Thus:
Fully 15,000 persons were attracted to the scene of the fire in the portion of the plant of the Greenwald Packing Company, Claremont Stock Yards, which was discovered at 4:56 yesterday afternoon.—Baltimore American.
Twenty-five thousand people jammed Broadway between Bleecker and Bond streets yesterday noon and had the excitement of watching 250 girls escape from a twelve-story loft building which was afire.—New York Sun.