The Southern Herald

An unusually peculiar damage suit has just been decided in New York by which the widow of a fire chief has been awarded $25,000 for the loss of his life in a furniture establishment fire. The chief fell through an open well hole in the building into a cellar half filled with water and was drowned before he could be rescued. The open well hole was in violation of a city ordinance. This suit, with its large damages, will help to emphasize the highly important fact that such ordinances are intended to prevent just such accidents, and that disregard of them leads to criminal and civic liability when a life is lost. There are many ordinances of the kind held lightly in regard until a fatal accident shocks the authorities into enforcement.