Russell, Charles - 1908

Night Fire at College
Timely Discovery of Blaze Prevented Ugly Fire.  Extinguished, it Breaks out a Second Time.
South College the Place

Fire broke out in South College Tuesday night at half past ten in the walls between the first and second floor and immediately over the room which suffered by the fire of several weeks ago on the afternoon of the Dickinson football game.  Tuesday night’s blaze was extinguished before any great damage was done.

It was caused by a large quantity of paper, which the occupants of the second floor rooms have been throwing down the flues below their fire places, catching fire from a piece of burning paper thrown down during the evening.  The fire smoldered for a time and then dense volumes of smoke came up the flue and started to fill the room occupied by Joseph Leffler and Charles Russell.  It will be remembered that Mr. Russell suffered severely by a fire in his room last year when his curtains became ignited and it was only after the most vigorous sort of work that the room was saved from suffering very great damage.

As soon as Tuesday night’s blaze was discovered a brigade was quickly formed and some water was used.  It was remembered that at the time of the fire several weeks ago one of the large chemical extinguishers of the Gettysburg Fire Department had been left in the building for use in case the blaze of that time should break out afresh.  This was hurriedly brought from the first floor to the room into which the smoke was fast pouring and the stream of chemicals played down the flue.
The smoke ceased and al thought the incident over.  An hour later, shortly before midnight the flames broke out again and the extinguisher was again rushed to the scene and this time the contents were completely soaked with the mixture and no further trouble was experienced.

While little damage was done by Tuesday night’s fire it was a rather narrow escape as trouble would surely have followed if the second blaze had not been discovered when it was.  Mr. Russell and Mr. Leffler were preparing to retire for the night when they found that the refuse was again on fire and if this had not happened until a quarter of an hour later when the occupants of the room would have been asleep the flames would probably have gotten a good start before anything could have been done.

~ Adams County News, Gettysburg, PA, Saturday, November 28, 1908, Page 1, Column 3