Mysterious Blaze Rouses Residents In Eliot, Kirkland

Students in Eliot and Kirkland dropped their books and left their early suppers late Sunday afternoon to watch seven fire engines stifle smoke and stench pouring through the yard between the two Houses from refuse cans which no one claimed to recognize.

First verdict of the Cambridge Fire Department and most Eliot-Kirkland residents was "spontaneous combustion in the Houses' garbage dump," but one Eliot janitor declared he had "never seen the cans before."

Neighborhood Kids' Prank

"They weren't our rubbish cans or garbage cans from the dining hall," he asserted. "They must have been brought and lit by some neighborhood kids as in prank. Spontaneous combustion seems unlikely since everything was out in the open with plenty of air in the cans."

Whether spontaneous or not, 42 local fire-fighters put out the "blaze" within ten minutes, aided by falling snow, but it took almost an hour before all the engines could pull out of the Eliot drifts.