Chase Shustack

These fires, though unfortunately fatal, were nothing more than terrible coincidences, nothing anyone needed to worry about.

For the next three days, the town returned to some degree of normalcy.

The Sycamore Hill shopping plaza reopened a day after the fire, and those who had lost loved ones were given a complimentary shopping voucher for up to $50.

The gardening gloves found in the dumpster were sent off as evidence to be examined.

and the charred ruins of the furniture store were slowly picked through by investigators and demolition workers.

In all the commotion, it had been very easy, too easy in fact, to forget all about the Siskin Lumber Mill.

No one gave a second thought to that crumbling, run-down mill slowly sinking into the riverbank, let alone the canted log that lay gathering moss alongside the rusted chute.

It was a balmy Saturday evening at Siskin High School.

Although classes had been long dismissed for summer break, the gym had been open for all variety of sports events and fundraisers.

Tonight was a basketball game, and over 430 people, parents, players, coaches, and the occasional vendor, were in attendance.

The game was going well and, aside from a rough start in the first quarter, the home team had pulled off a remarkable upset.

At the middle of the third quarter, an alarm went off.

It wasn't the school's fire alarm, but rather the horrified shriek of a janitor who ran into the gymnasium, exclaiming about a fire.

Following him was a thick plume of smoke, which rushed from the hallway and into the crowded gym with sadistic speed.

The game came to a screeching halt.

Basketballs still dribbled by themselves as players ran, shoes squeaking, into the throng of terrified citizens toward the exit.

The sprinkler system, which should have been triggered by the smoke, never went off.

Instead, it hung dead over the packed room without sharing a single drop of water.

As the crowd piled against the exit, they found to their horror that the doors, which merely an hour and a half ago had been working perfectly fine, refused to budge.

Throwing themselves against the doors, the crowd desperately tried to either break the glass or force the doors off their hinges.