December 30 “”Fire is a good servant but a bad master”

When used properly, and with control, fire can be a good thing. For example, December 30th is National Bacon Day. Using “Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis’s Cook Book”, by Sidney Morse, published in 1914, one uses smoke to prepare bacon. This is a big book of cooking and other advice-1300 pages! I found the instructions on how to salt, season, and then smoke bacon. It takes a low fire to properly smoke.

More important, is how to cook bacon. Using “Two Fat Ladies, Gastronomic Adventures” published by the BBC (in tandom with a TV series) in 1996, I found several unusual recipes. This British show was not your average pretty chef making artsy food. These were real women that were not afraid to use butter.

I was not too sure about the first bacon recipe in the book. It was “Boiled Pigeons and Bacon.” It is a mediaeval (sic) recipe and it turns out that many castles and mansions in those days had ‘dovecotes’ to raise pigeons and doves. There was then a steady source of meat.

The second recipe is “Scallop and Bacon Kebabs”. It was simple, wrap scallops with bacon, and then alternate on skewer with pieces of onion. It was to cook on hot charcoal fire until bacon is done, rotating to keep flaming down.

December 30th, 1865 was the birth of Rudyard Kipling. Fire is involved with several of his books. I have “The Jungle Book” published in 1897. I also have “All the Mowgli Stories” published in 1966. This book has “The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book” and “In the Rukh” stories all together.

Mowgli uses the “Red Flower” or fire, stolen from the village to drive away the tiger Shere Khan. In the Disney Jungle Book movie, King Louis wants the knowledge of “Man’s Red Fire” to control others. Fire is now becoming dangerous.

December 30th, 1903, Chicago had the Iroquois Theatre Fire. Not only did Chicago have the Great Chicago Fire disaster in 1871, but later, The Iroquois Theatre Fire, which killed over 600 people. That was about twice the lives lost from the Great Chicago Fire. I have the book “Chicago’s Awful Theatre Horror” published in early spring of 1904, right after the fire itself.

This is a detailed book with many witnesses and firemens’ firsthand accounts. When reading it, one feels like they are right there. The stage curtain was lit by an exploding light, and could not be put out. Safety curtains and other devices did not work. The fire spread, and many exits were either locked or opened inward, then blocked by the rushing crowds. The details of how the accident progressed is striking.

This was, and still is, the largest theatre fire ever. It was also the largest one building casualty incident until the Twin Tower catastrophe in New York. After the fire, many safeguards were put into place for public buildings. As the Titanic billed itself as “unsinkable”, the Iroquois Theatre (which was open less than a month) billed itself as “Apsolutely Fireproof”. This is a horrible example of bad decisions with fire safety, and cutting corners, and a resulting fire out of control.

We should all be like Smoky the Bear thinking of fire:

“Remember fireproof does not mean foolproof“

“Fire feeds on careless deeds“

“Fires are rare when care is there“

Thanks for reading.