A postman wanted to deliver a letter to mary reeser an elderly woman who lied alone in an apartment block when the postman received no response a neighbour of mrs reeser's offered to hand it to her. After knocking on the door several times she tried turning the doorknob it was so hot that she cried out in pain fearing what might have happened she asked two house painters were working on the same seventh floor to break into the apartment the men put their shoulders to the door and pushed it open. A blast of hot air hit them and they expected to see the room on fire lnstead they saw only a piece of wood burning in the same place ther were the metel springs of an armchair some smouldering boones and a slipper with the foot still inside burnt off at the ankle! The men put out the fire and called the police the officers looked around for signs of the cause