The firemen of the town of Coimbra. about 150 miles north of Lisbon, decided last week to hold a realistic drill. Hundreds of spectators, out to celebrate Portugal's Holy Queen religious festival, gathered, and 20 youngsters, many of them sons of the firemen, clambered into an old four-story frame building. The boys were paid 45¢ to play the part of "tenants." The firemen, having doused the structure with gasoline, retired to their station 400 yards away to await the alarm.
A torch was applied, the alarm sounded, the firefighters raced to the...