The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-01-01

CkuulnR a snare or numOr.
 The most newsworthy event of the past year, an event which gained the attention of both the police and fire departments of the city as well es other agencies and the combined population of the city, was the De- cember 9th explosion and fire on Seminole avenue in which Mrs. Ethel 0. Ringenberg lost her life and her daughter, Mrs. Ruth Han sen, her son-in-law, Theodore Han sen and the couples daughter, Jeanne, were injured. Final findings in the disaster are still pending.
 Worthy of mention also on the fire front was the fire of April 30 in which Q Waterbury land mark, "BlaciSie's'' Restaurant, on the Cheshire road, burned to the ground.
 Marshal Lahey
 Veteran Fire Marshal Dennis J. Lahey retired early in December A 15-months-old girl, Cynthia Laraway, daughter of MT. and Mrs. Sumner Laraway, of 47 Warner Place, died at St. Mary's Hospital a few hours after she was severely burned when her home caught fire on December l3 James and Lucian Piciotti, 2 and year old sons of MT. and Mrs. Anthony Pici- otti, 17-19 Rose street, narrowly escaped injury and possible death when alone in their home early in January, blaze broke out in the living room.
 Within 24 hours of each other on January 9, two restaurants, Diorio's on Bank Street and Cretella's on Scovill Street, were damaged by fire at an estimated loss of over $30,0OO A day after a fire of $l,000 damage was curbed at the Central YMCA's bowling alleys by an alert policeman who spotted the blaze from Exchange Place and placed the call to Headquarters e.
 On May g, The Democrats Press Room was the scene of a minor fire January saw the appoint ment to the Fire Department of William O'Neill and Kenneth Tracy Investigating a call from a passerby who thought he detected flames eminating from an East Main street building, firemen, early in January, discovered that the flames were merely the reflection from a container of canned heat at the Gunther Mathe's Studio on East Main Street ..
 Murder Victim
 Early in July Mrs. Mary Hatch died at St. Mary's Hospital as the result of wounds received in a stab- bing in a Savings Street Tavern. Nicholas Lucarelli, 37, of Central avenue was held as the slayer of the victim Waterville residents, as well as the rest of the city's popu- lation, were shocked at the April 30 murder and suicide of two Water vile residents, David. F. Hubbell who was murdered by his sister-in- law, Flora B. Hubbell who later killed herself
 Other suicides featured the head lines in l945 December saw the rifle suicide of a Brooklyn under taker and the hanging in the bath room of a Randolph Avenue res- ident A South Main Street resident killed himself by slashing his throat with a butcher knife in June
 Police Superintendent William J. Roach returned to duty in Decem- Der after an absence of two years while he served with @ military police unit of the Army Deputy Chief Daniel J. Carson attended a meeting of the International Chiefs of Police in Florida in the same month and a month before the Police Department was presented with a loudSpeaker system for a squad car. The presentation was made by The St. Louis Service, Inc. Another presentation of two squad cars was made to the Depart ment in December by the Scovill Manufacturing Company.
 On March l3 police were trying to identify nude skeleton discov- cred in the woods near Lakewood on the same day, nine year old Chase, West Grove Street, was killed by a car as she walked to school Other motor vehicle fatalities in 1945 included the un- timely death of 10Syear-old Michael Kinney of Plank Road in Septem- Der and the death of Diana Briotti,