April 21, 1887 — The almost total destruction by fire of four Virginia towns within the last month or so, should serve as a warning to Luray to take immediate steps to protect itself against a similar fate. Within the time mentioned, Onancock, South Boston, Farnham and Hicksford have been well nigh totally destroyed, to say nothing of the smaller fires at Front Royal and Berryville.
The time has come when Luray should have a fire engine; the imperative necessity for such an apparatus is too plain to need an argument in its favor; its cost should not be considered for a moment. To secure it is the plainest duty our Council has before it. In a town the size of Luray, and situated as it is, an engine would answer the best purpose.
We merely suggest in this time the necessity of such protection, feeling assured that what we say will be heartily endorsed by the property owners. We urge the matter upon the attention of the Council, and hope immediate action will be taken looking to the purchase of an engine.
It will be too late to say we ought to have had such protection when the town has been fire swept. The villages mentioned think that way now, and some of them have since gone to work to buy engines to prevent the recurrence of such disasters as have recently befallen them.
~ From the public archives of the Page News and Courier
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