The clanging of a flotilla of fire engines--about ten strong--cut through the quiet of a lethargic reading period afternoon yesterday, and students poured out of Lamont and other assorted sanctuaries to watch what should have been by all odds the blaze of the year.

Detachments from three different stations roared deafeningly down DeWolfe St. and Memorial Drive, converging on Mill St. and the south wing of Lowell House. From a fourth floor suite, smoke issued threateningly. But this was to be no day for glory.

A cigarette had found a comfortable home among combustibles, but as the army of firefighters was to learn, not always is there fire where there is smoke. After lugging two hoses through the fence which protects Lowell from the street, the troops had little difficulty in quelling the smoldering heap.

According to Francis A. Hart '60, onetime smoker of the pesky cigarette, damages were minimal, with the chief mishap being the partial ravaging of a chair valued at $3. Part of a wall suffered some scorching also.

One of the biggest problems the firemen faced was getting their hoses through the narrowly-ribbed fence and keeping the huge engines from getting in each other's way.

However, unlike previous occasions, firemen had no complaints yesterday about parked cars blocking their way to the fire.