Litchfield enquirer., 1876-02-03
Washington Fire Record.

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 As ancient Rome was saved the cackling of geese, soon last Thursday night did a portion of this ancient town of Jrdea come near being saved by the snoring of little child. Tie facts are these one of our worthy citizens, iiviDg in one.of of the most densely populated streets of our will lage has hot air furnace in his house. 1t Is located in the basement, directly under the sleeping room of an elderly maiden lady Through the winter season, fires of course, are kept running night and day. In the construction and setting up of the furnace, and connecting pipes the utmost pteeaution was taken to guard against fire and it was thought to be perfectly secure. The result ought to be a lesson to us all to be more careful in the construction of our chimneys and fues Many will allow an Imperfect chimney to stand years after they know 1t to be so just because they never happen to have the time to attend to 1t, thus endangering the lives of their little children as we'll as the loss of prop erty. .Whentan alarm of fire is given at midnight, with children and aged ones asleep in different parts of the house, they donot always escaped without loss of life as was providentially the case in th1s in stance. tbth " st / :
 Well, on the night in question, this fam ily retired to rest, little dreaming that an alarm of ireyas to be sounded so soon. Our elderly maiden lady whom we will call Aunty, took tobed with her little child of three years, who was visiting at the house. At about the the hour of midnight frantic screams of Fire Fire The house is on fire !, Help Help r ,&c. is- sued from Aunty's room. What will cur de the blood in any person 8 veins more than this one word Fire, ''given in the dead ofnighk Ofconrse, every inmate sprang out of bed in an instant and and prepared to escape. f. Tine man of the house imme- diately rushed for Aunty's room. expecting the flame from the furnace had burnt up through the floor and was smothering the occupant. He burst open the door, deter mined to rescue age and infancy at all hazards. and then attend to the rest of the family. What sight met his view as he entered the room there sat Aunty, bolt upright in bed. screaming Fire help!" &c. with such frightened look IS only the sight of house on fire could produce. | There she sat, but the fiery fend which you would su pp ose by this time had en-' veloped the whole room was nowhere to be seen. There lay the child, snoring peace fully by her side. In.answer to -"Where :? where ?. Where is the fire ?" she cried, There, there, there don't you hear it Don't you hear it roor 2' The truth inn mediately presented itself to the head of that household. and the ludicrousness of the scene convulsed him with laughter. Aunty was trife deaf, and her avocation ill this life has not been one that would infantile sounds to her ear. Something had no doubt aroused the re- membrance of her old sparks and flames. She had been dreaming of the fires ofyouth, long since allowed to slumber, and it had so worked upon her imagination that it was not at all surprising that she had mis- taken those long-drawn snores at her side for the roaring and cracking of the fiery elements. The momentary shock to the nervous system of that family was terrific, though Aunty, I understand, has so far re- covered from. her fright that she even jokes about it. but doubt if she will ever run the risk of sleeping with another child The scene at that fire can be better i'm agined than described, without the aid of illustration. I have no doubt but some eyewitness could have given you a more vivid description than I have done for have taken 1t all on hearsay. though l can vouch for it as being a veri- table occurrence.
 Ar. Editor Will you please place this in conspicuous place in your paper. The lesson which it teaches will be to me a lasting one and shall always be more careful about fire and I trust that every man who reads this will profit by it and think of the valuable lives that might have been lost in this one instance 9f the fire had actually got started from some imperfection in the chimney. and # the baby had not providentially snored loud enough to awaken Auuty. o. U. c.
 Washington. Conn.,, Jan. 28th, 1876.
 Warren.