Occupants of rooms surrounding Dunster House courtyard were startled last night about 9 o'clock when a burning sofa hurtled from a fourth floor window in F entry onto the pavement beneath. For fifteen minutes its flames flared up from the court casting an unholy glare over the usually tranquil House and illuminating the efforts of the brave Cambridge fire ladies in their struggle against the fiercest of the elements.

The blaze was of obscure origin. At 8.50, three details of firemen from the Brattle St. station, arrived at the door of Dunster F-44 to find the study a haze of smoke. With smarting eyes, their leader discerned the cause of the smoke; a sofa in the far corner was oxidizing rapidly, crackling like a good log fire on a winter's night. A consultation was held; the sofa was tossed from the window. And, as the inhabitants of Dunster jeered, the firemen danced their weird tribal dance around the blazing pyre.