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Show Woman Sure She Heard a Man Starting thoi ' i Blaze. WAS AWAKENED BY STEPS IN EMPTY ROOM Agent of the Premises - Doubts the Story, and Offers Two Theories. s Alone in her homo, except for two young children, a woman who lives at S3 N street, was awakened at -1 o'clock "Wednesday morning by loud footsteps In a near-by vacant house which, Immediately Imme-diately after, was a mass of flames. Although Al-though the situation was a most trying ono for a woman under tho circumstances, circum-stances, sho hastened to her telophono and summoned the tiro department Tho houso destroyed was a double rcsldohco located at 73 and 77 North N street, owned by Mrs. Feathcrstone of Price, Utah, and Mrs. William Smith of Salt Lake. The woman who heard tho noise preceding pre-ceding the discovery of the flnmes believes be-lieves that sho actually heard an Incendiary Incen-diary at work. She said to Tho Tribune last night: Awakened by a Noise. "About ! o'clock this morning I wur awakened by heavy footsteps In tho north half of tho double house near my premises. prem-ises. Tho steps wero more audlblo by reason of the houso being vacant. I distinctly dis-tinctly heard a ndlse as if a person -were tearing paper. "I hastened to the window of the room occupied by my children and saw flames leaping up from the upstairs rooms. Tho llames resembled such as aro caused by loose papers burning. Heard Man in the House. "I ran to the telephone and, after some trouble, succeeded In getting the flro department. de-partment. Several moments were wasted beforo this was accomplished, and when tho department arrived tho llames had gained great headway. I am sure that 1 heard a man In the houso beforo It caught fire, but 1 did not sec him. I rather think that, whoever he was, ho must havo heard mo call for rtio department, depart-ment, as I llnd to call loudly several times. The firemen found a bottlo of gasoline nearly full and a can of oil In the building. They also found a bunch of charred papers." Mr. C. W. Miller, agent for the owners of the house, when seen in regard to tho lire, said: Has Two Theories. "I havo two theories as to tho origin of tho fire. The first is that tho premises wero struck by lightning during tho storm of Tuesday night, and that tho lightning sot flro to some material that Hmoulderod until It burst forth into flames nnd was discovered, which thoory Is supported by tho belief of tho assistant assist-ant fire chief, expressed to me, ho having said that he thought tho lire had been burning at least an hour to an hour and a half prior to Its discovery. "My sccond thoor ia that It waa caused by a cigarette or a match thrown down by some unknown man who has been sleeping In ono of the rooms. Tho man, whoever he was. kept his bedding nnd clothes In ono of tho closets of an upstairs room I do not think It was set afire intentionally. I visited the house last Sunday and found two windows unlocked. un-locked. I. of courae. locked them, but I learn from the firemen that they found two windows unlocked when they arrived at tho sc?n this morning. I think, llko tho assistant chief, that Iho women In tho neighborhood became excited and that tho Incendiary Idea 'Is the result of their Imagination." Tho record of tho Flro department shows tho origin of tho flames to bo unknown. |
