Some Causes of Fire.
First and foremost among fire details to be considered in any large city is the cause. It is a wornout saying that abolish the cause and the effect is nothing, and in fire matters this is especially applicable. Sometimes in controversies after a fire, a definite knowledge of the cause throws hundreds of dollars one way or the other.
If a fire gets well under way, unless oil has been used in incendiarism, the cause is gone, but oil is a detective. It is sure in its exposure even after a fire has done considerable damage and apparently burned up everything. Five or six years ago, about two o’clock in the morning, an officer in Manchester, N. H., saw a flaming light flash up in a millinery store. By the time he got to the place the flames were skipping here and there about the store, catching on to the ribbons and feathers, and in five minutes the interior of the store was practically a red-hot mass. When the firemen finished their labor and the engineers began an investigation of what appeared a very suspicious fire, the marks of the oil in a distinct line were found leading from the store to beneath one of the counters. It could not be effaced. There it was, deeply furrowed. It is needless to say that the claims of the proprietors were contested by the insurance company.
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