For the Month of March in our Looking Back Series, we revisit 1872 and get a peak into what is ahead. We have received a treasure of information from the Reading Area Firefighters Museum in photos by Tony Miccicke and text copied from a diary kept since 1872, a year of strings of arson fires which kept firefighters quite busy. While we figure out how we will share this information with you read this excerpt news item about one of the fires that was discovered after an apparent break in.
March 7, 1872
Fire.--Last night a few minutes before ten o'clock a fire broke out in Mr. W. K. Hagy's tobacco store, 619 Penn Street, when a general alarm was given, to which the firemen responded in full force. The timely discovery of the fire by Dr. A. Herr, who was going along up the street, prevented a serious conflagration. As he approached the store he saw the reflection of the light through the window, immediately raised the alarm, and then forced his way into the store through the front door and threw water on the fire, from the hydrant in the back part of the store, checking the flames until assistance came, when they were promptly quenched. The origin of the fire has not been ascertained. It was located at the western side of the store, and apparently commenced on the outside of some large tobacco boxes. The stove is in the rear portion of the store-room and on the other side of the partition. a portion of the shelving and a number of tobacco boxes were destroyed, and some 5000 Yara segars are missing. The loss sustained will amount to several hundred dollars.
For the Month of March in our Looking Back Series, we revisit 1872 and get a peak into what is ahead. We have received a treasure of information from the