The Fairfield Herald

A Bolt from a Clear Sky--The Miraculous Escape of an Attic Sleeper.

Early last Friday morning, at Erie, Pa., a thunderbolt descended from an almost cloudless sky, doing much damage. The Republican says: On the north side of Fifth street, near State, is a double brick house, the western half occupied by Hon. Alfred King. The families were startled by a report which seemed as if heaven and earth had come together.

After the shock was over, Mr. King, sleeping below, arose for the purpose of ascertaining what damage had been sustained by his household, being satisfied that the bolt had fallen upon that building.

As he glanced through the various rooms upon the first floor, he found them filled with soot and dust, but no appearance of demolition. He passed up to the next floor above and found the same state of things. He then started for the attic, in the southern portion of which his son Kennedy was sleeping, and as he looked in at door of the apartment he saw the light of the morning streaming through the roof, and Kennedy almost buried in the debris.

He had risen from the mass of plastering and splinters of rafters and shingles, which had fallen over him, and was sitting upright in bed, trying to clear the dust from his eyes. The mortar was almost an inch in thickness, one piece of which weighing about fifteen pounds, as well as a large amount of smaller particles and splintered timber, fell upon him, and he found himself almost buried beneath it, and, what is fully as singular as anything else is that fire was not communicated to the material, which was almost as dry as powder, as not a drop of rain fell at the time.