Page:Newspaper writing and editing.djvu/125

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most of the tenants left the doors of their apartments open when they fled, the draught swept the fire through floor after floor. The interior of the whole five floors was destroyed. Three alarms were turned in and the fire was not under control until 10 o'clock.


Stories of Accidents. News stories of accidents are constructed on the same plan as those of fires, and the features are practically the same. The story of the accident in the subway (page 41) and the following one may be taken as typical reports of accidents.


In attempting to protect the lives of others against danger from a broken electric light wire, Patrolman Patrick Wilson, 751 Erie St., was electrocuted at 3:30 this morning on Depere Place between 75th and 76th streets. The body of the policeman was discovered an hour later by Oscar Wilkins, a milkman, as he was driving along Depere Place on his morning rounds. A small red burn across the back of his right hand and a live wire with a rope attached dangling from a tree a few feet away, showed how Wilson had lost his life.

Patrolman Wilson talked with Police Sergeant William Strong about the broken wire on Depere Place near 75th Street about 3:15 this morning. As he did not report to the police station from the patrol box as usual at 3:35, it is assumed that he was killed shortly before that time.

"There's a live wire hanging down from a tree on Depere Place," said Wilson to Sergeant Strong when they met shortly after three o'clock. "I'm afraid someone will be killed. I've been watching it all night. I believe I will try to fasten it up in the tree so that no one will run into it."