Today’s puerile giggles news story

Bonus points for the writer being “Molly Bloom”.

Firefighters put out blaze in cockloft
Monday, May 23, 2005

A Jersey City woman’s summer clothes were lost but her home was saved after a one-alarm fire on Saturday evening, firefighters said.

The one-alarm fire on Suburbia Drive started shortly before 6 p.m., apparently when an electric lamp tipped into a plastic storage bin filled with summer clothes in the home’s cockloft, Jersey City Fire Capt. Andrew Johnson said.

In spite of the difficulties of operating in a cramped cockloft, Johnson said firefighters had the fire under control within 20 minutes and concluded the entire operation within an hour, “It took a little maneuvering to get up in that area,” he said.

There were no injuries to residents or firefighters and the only damage was to the clothes and some water damage to the woman’s house, Johnson said. A firewall prevented the fire from spreading to the roof or to neighboring houses.

“They were very lucky, because once it’s up in the cockloft, it’s already gone,” Johnson said. “Once it gets up there, it’s almost out of control.”

MOLLY BLOOM