Did You Cause The Ratcliff Building Fire?

An insurance investigator reported that a large birds' nest filled with cigarette butts, one of them possibly lit, may well have been the origination point of the fire that destroyed one of the most attractive buildings on 5th Avenue. The Huntington Fire Department has not determined the cause and may not be able to confirm the investigator's findings.

Assuming the insurance investigator is correct, I wonder who the thoughtless people were who threw down all of the butts found in the birds' nest? And who threw down the still smouldering butt that most likely ignited the destructive blaze?

And who's not to say that the Emmons buildings on 3rd Avenue were not damaged as the result of a cigarette butt being disposed of in an improper manner? Our streets and gutters all over the city are filled with cigarette smoking material! What a blight on our hometown!

It is time to outlaw smoking in public! What do you think?