Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-04-25


There are three types Of firebugs the one who sets
blazes merely for seeing flames the crook
who burns down his store or dwelling for gain and
the hend who starts fire 10 cover up a murder
Burning UP things for gain seems head the list Such
a blaze started by a small storekeeper. He hadn't
doing well and his stock heavily insured
he decided to collect by setting his place on fire
There narrow passageway between his store
and next building in which quantity OF rubbish had
accumulated It natural All he had to do was TO
bore a small hole through the wall thread trailer to
carry through the hole into his store. light a
stub of a candle the rubbish heap and be miles
away when the fire started No would ever suspect
him. and the evidence would be destroyed
Unfortunately for him. however. passing policeman
burning candle before gnted the rubbish
the investigation which followed it found that the
the wall been bored from inside the store The
storekeeper collected not the insurance but term in
prison
often it the small and unpredicabe incident that
betrays the THE thing he thinks Of An
apparently welltodo farmer learned this to his
on a cold day, with high wind whipping across the
fields his house mysterousy caught on fire
a mailman the fremen battled the flames. Several
times they dragged him back from the burning building
At last the blaze under control although the house
total loss. One of the weary fire fighters sought
refuge behind the barn rest minute and the chill
Presently he conscious Of strange sound in
side the barn He reported it to the fire chief.
Together they investigated and found that the farmer
had carried all his household to the barn which
distance from the house The small thing that
tripped him up, and him term in prison, the
that he had forgotten to stop the cuckoo clock
Experts have uncanny ability 10 detect
anything phony about fire. The smallest clue will start
them, like boodhounds trail which generally leads
10 al arrest and conviction.
which seemed absolutely detection-proof con-
cerned blaze that started ice paror Rubber
cement had been spread the floor and counters as
feeders the flames The fremen smeled the burning
stuff but the opening Of the doors brought thrush Of
violent explosion The baclash of flames drove
the fremen botted out all the evidence
With only suspicion go the investigator went
TO work. He reasoned that Of fremen
far enough into the building before the explosion
TO get of the rubber cement their boots This
the and the store convicted
Today the modern fire department is equipped with
cameras for photographing evidence which may
with the collapse of the building The trail left by
line soaked papers strings is instance of this kind
There also special tigh-seaed and sponges
hopping UP and preserving any innammabe liquids
found where they shouldn't be
Another innovation is the atmosphere-preserver With
this the investigators able to bottle quantity Of
inside the burning building and examine it later at the
laboratory All this makes it tough on the frebug
Sometimes nature takes hand in betraying arson.
list like this Summer camp owner. His ingenious plan
consisted Of buying cheap electric iron and allowing it
to overhead while he miles away from the camp,
establishing alibi II it was discovered he could always
claim he had gone off and forgotten IL.
The first ron although IL left for several
hours failed produce the desired effect and he threw
into the in front Of the camp. second iron did
the same, but the third started satisfactory fire
he would have escaped detection except
thing When the investigator arrived. the tide
out he noticed the two electric irons and quietly learned
they had both been purchased by tho camp When
confronted with this information the broke down.
Almost anyone likes watch fire but sometimes this
interest passes normally and then you have the
maniac.
Chief VIM. Mccall Of Stoneham, Massachusetts. tells
of incident of this type lie noticed that the young
who directed the remen to the fire the same
who had sounded another alarm short time before This
blaze known TO be of incendiary origin
quietly notified the state Fire Marshals office with
the result that boys between II and % years
convicted Their apprehension cleared the
mystery Of 80 fires which had cost than 100000