Probably the most remarkable manner ever used to extinguish a fire occurred at the mining town of Boswell, Pennsylvania in the early morning hours of January 16, 1908.
Ten buildings were ablaze and the flames, which had practically destroyed one building, were making rapid headway toward another in which was stored a large quantity of powder. In fact, it contained enough powder to blow up the whole village!
The town had no fire department, and water at that time was very scarce, but all around was a deep layer of snow that was just perfect for snowballing. And that is exactly what the citizens of Boswell did–they threw snowballs!
As a last resort, hundreds of men, women, boys and girls–practically the entire population–began throwing snowballs made from the soft, wet snow onto the burning buildings. After a time, the rain of thousands of these missiles eventually confined the flames and prevented a catastrophe that would have destroyed the entire town.
And thus, Boswell has the distinction of being the only town where hundreds of novel fire fighters united in “the biggest snowball fight ever” in order to save it.
© 2008 Nan Clay
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