Snowball Atrocities #5: Urban Legend Snowballs September 24, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Beach recently ran across this marvelous nonsense:
Probably the most remarkable manner of extinguishing fire has occurred at Boswell, a mining town in Pa., America. Hundreds of men, women, boys, and girls saved the town from destruction by throwing snowballs. The town says (the veracious chronicler) has no fire department and water is scarce. The flames had gained much headway, and a building in which was stored sufficient powder to blow up the village was threatened. As a last resource practically the entire population began thowing snowballs by thousands, made from soft, wet snow, and after a time prevented the explosion and confined the flames to a half-dozen buildings. Yorks Eve Post, 28 Jan 1908.
This has to be an urban legend? Beach has noted before the naivety of British papers picking up tall American stories. But, as it happens there are also some British versions of the same.
Early yesterday morning a policeman passing Messrs. Jermyn and Poony’s shop in Lynn, noticed a beam on fire. He blew his whistle, and a dozen constables quickly answered the call. On account of the frost no water could be obtained, and the policemen, not to be baulked, snowballed the fire and extinguished it after a quarter of an hour’s bombardment. Sheff Eve Tel, 16 Feb 1900, 4
And here is another one
An outbreak of fire at Messrs Reeds, drapers Neath, on Wednesday, did extensive damage. Water not being available, a bystander broke the plate-glass in front of the shop, and hundreds of helpers threw snow upon the flames, which were thus extinguished. Glouc Journal, 2 Jan 1909.
Of course, this will all come down to the science of how much water there is in each snowball, and how many snowball can be lobbed at the fire and how big the area in question is: the last point is why the American story is unbelievable, at least to this blogger. The others give name and places that in British newspapers is normally a guarantee…
Any thoughts: drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com
Bruce T., 29 Sep 2016: I have very good friend who grew up not far from Boswell, the little town of Springs. That region sits in the high Alleghenies at over 2000 feet above sea level and is pounded by heavy snow storms from Thanksgiving to mid-March thanks to the prevailing winds dropping feet of lake effect snow from Lake Erie on the region. I’ve been through there in the winter and the adjoining area of Maryland, same terrain and climate, many times over the decades. I was once stuck in Baltimore for nearly a week in early April in the mid-80’s due to storm that dumped nearly four feet of heavy wet snow, waiting for the roads to be reopened out that way. People get around there via snowmobiles in the winter due to the multiple deep drifting snows and low temps which don’t allow for a melt until spring. It’s remote, rugged country to begin with, and winter makes it more so. If there was a fire in Boswell in mid-winter, snow would be a logical choice. It was mining town, there would have been coal shovels aplenty and people with strong backs to wield them. A much better option than trying to hand pump water from the few wells that would have existed in a small coal town of the time. The only thing I find odd about the report is it comes from York? Something like that happening in Somerset County, where Boswell is located at would more likely have came from a newspaper in Pittsburgh, which is somewhat close. York is on the the other side of the state. York however was the head of navigation on the Susquehanna River, a few dozen miles up from the head of Chesapeake Bay and an industrial center. Perhaps the company that owned the mine was headquartered there. If you type Boswell PA into Google, about the fourth item down is the site of their historical society. Email them and ask them if the story is true. I’d doubt the stories from Britain more than the one from Boswell. Do those areas get 4 plus feet of snow that stays on the ground all winter, every winter?Interesting fact on Boswell, while the deep snow would make it a perfect place for such a thing to happen, a little digging shows the coal baron who built the town insisted it be constructed of brick to minimize fires that normally plagued many ramshackle balloon framed wooden coal towns of the era. You still might want to check with the historical society to see if there’s a kernel of truth to the story? Just because a building is made of brick it doesn’t mean the insides can’t go up? All that snow would make it a good option for quenching any kind of fire. Plus, outside attention for that little town would thrill them to no end. There’s nothing up there but hemlocks and Amish.The region I live in shares the same miserable wet type of snow that Boswell gets. A foot of snow is equivalent to 1.5 to 2.0 inches of rain, give or take a 1/4 inch or so. Somerset County gets normally about a foot and half of snow per storm and it piles up over the winter as it rarely melts off. A foot and half of snow? 2.25 to 3.0 inches of rain. A heavy snow, say 2.5-3ft. which happens nearly every year, 3.75 to 6 inches of rain. A real blizzard, 4 ft. and I’ll let you do the math. They get ridiculous amounts of snow in that region due the moisture coming off of Lake Erie hitting the front ranges of the western side of the Alleghenies. Most of the county is between 2000-2800 feet above sea level and cold Canadian air dominates in the winter. Be glad you don’t live there. As you might imagine, the skiing industry is big in that region as a whole. If only they could get the Amish on snowboards?
