On Saturday evening a slight outbreak of fire occurred in Rushden, which, whilst fortunately kept within narrow limits, afforded an opportunity for a practical test of the new electric calls of the brigade.

The outbreak occurred at the house of Mr. Alfred Brightwell, opposite the Oakley Inn, on the Wellingborough-road. Mr. Bye, a neighbour, noticed a flickering light in the upstairs room, and as Mr. Brightwell and his family had gone away to Northampton, naturally surmised that something was amiss. Mr. J. Lovell, the landlord, affected an entrance by the window, and it was found that the floor of the upstairs room was well alight. The police were also quickly in attendance, and with the help of a few buckets of water all danger was quickly averted.

An alarm was communicated to the fire station at 10.25, and, though some distance away, within seven minutes the hose cart was on the scene of the fire, and the stand pipe was fixed. The electric call bells to houses of the firemen were rung, and the officials were greatly pleased by the prompt way in which the brigade was got together by these means. The flooring of the passage upstairs was burnt through in three places, and a partition upstairs was also burnt through. The cause of the outbreak is unknown, but as the back upstairs room had been used as a workroom, and paper laid over the carpet leading to the leather stored on the landing, it is surmised that this had smouldered unnoticed and afterwards broken into flames.