Read this excerpt from the great fire.
as the rest of the city went about its business, fireman
dorsey was racing through the streets to the closest signal
box, which happened to be at goll's drugstore. he opened
the small door on the box and used his thumb to pull down
the lever. dorsey then headed back to the scene of the fire,
not realizing that he'd made a mistake he had forgotten to
pull down the lever four times, a special signal that would
have made it a true second alarm. at the courthouse,
schaffer and brown would hear dorsey's alarm, but,
assuming it was simply another signal telling them about the
original fire, they failed to call out more engines. the fire had
now been burning for over an hour, and the wind was
increasing in velocity.