Newspaper Clipping of the Day

"Detroit Free Press," December 5, 1941, via Newspapers.com

It’s time for the good old Mystery Fires!  The “Detroit Free Press,” December 3, 1941:

A fire blitz was reported Tuesday night from Windsor where firemen maintained continuous watch over the Dominion Golf and Country Club, scene of 30 mysterious blazes within a period of seven hours. 

Many of the fires broke out while attendants at the Howard Ave. clubhouse stood by confused and helpless.  They started in rugs, curtains and even in the straw of a broom that leaned in a corner of the lobby.

"Only a ghost could have touched off the blazes," one of the club employees reported. "After the first fire was discovered, we were on guard, but others broke out under our very eyes." 

Nicholas White, manager and owner of the clubhouse, verified the story, although he was not inclined to believe that a "fire elemental," as occultists describe an incendiary spirit, was responsible. 

"I saw fires break out as I stood in the lobby," White said.

"First there would be a wisp of smoke, then a tiny tongue of flame would appear sometimes on the walls, sometimes on the floor. I was within a couple of feet of a window blind when it blazed up." 

Inspector Claude Anderson, of the Ontario Fire Marshall's office, who examined the premises Tuesday for traces of incendiary chemicals, declined to comment on his findings. Chemicals which ignite spontaneously under certain atmospheric conditions have been used in air raids by both the RAF and Luftwaffe.

As always seems to happen in such cases, the fires appear to have plagued the club for a few days, and then disappeared as inexplicably as they appeared.  What made this case interesting to me is that our fiery forces took their act on the road.  The “Free Press” ten days later:

JACKSON, Dec. 12--James V. Thomson, former chairman of the State Republican Central Committee, now county treasurer here, is trying to solve the origin of mysterious fires in his home, strange fires like those which sprung up in various parts of the Dominion Golf and Country Club near Windsor, Ont, early this month.

Thomson said early Sunday morning his mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary Sanford, saw smoke suddenly burst from a davenport. A few minutes after he extinguished the blaze another fire broke out in an overstuffed chair. Thomson hired an electrician to go over the home lighting equipment after the family spent an uneasy night Sunday. 

As a precautionary measure, Thomson attached a garden hose to an inside faucet. The mystery has not yet been explained, nor have there been any further outbursts of flame, Thomson said Friday.