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See [Ignorance].
CARELESSNESS, COST OF
The city of Butte, Montana, is built over a mine which has been on fire for seventeen years, not blazing out, but smoldering quietly, every effort being made to keep out the air, without which it can not spread very rapidly.
As to the origin of this fire the story is that a miner named Henshaw left his candle burning on a pine beam in the mine when he finished work one day seventeen years ago.
“Goin’ to leave the glim there, Bill?” his partner queried.
“Sure; what’s the difference?”
“Oh, nothin’, only there’ll be nobody round here for quite a while and I was just thinkin’ that if a fire started it might spread.”
“Well, we’ll take chances; let’s go!” was the glum response.
They went out, but the fire didn’t. A set of timbers caught and the flames spread quickly.