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fire-eaters

(Encyclopedia)fire-eaters, in U.S. history, term applied by Northerners to proslavery extremists in the South in the two decades before the Civil War. Edmund Ruffin, Robert B. Rhett, and William L. Yancey were the ...

fire escape

(Encyclopedia)fire escape, in architecture, device, either fixed or movable, to facilitate escape from a burning building. In the United States the term usually is applied to the common iron balconies and stairways...

fire insurance

(Encyclopedia)fire insurance: see insurance.

Fire Island

(Encyclopedia)Fire Island, barrier beach, 32 mi (52 km) long, off the south shore of Long Island, SE N.Y., separating Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Robert Moses State Park is at its west end. Once access...

Peshtigo Fire

(Encyclopedia)Peshtigo Fire: see under Peshtigo. ...

Siamese fighting fish

(Encyclopedia)Siamese fighting fish: see betta.

Fire, Andrew Zachary

(Encyclopedia)Fire, Andrew Zachary, 1959–, American geneticist, b. Palo Alto, Calif., Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983. After a long association with the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1986�...

Saint Elmo's fire

(Encyclopedia)Saint Elmo's fire, luminous discharge of electricity extending into the atmosphere from some projecting or elevated object. It is usually observed (often during a snowstorm or a dust storm) as brushli...

Camp Fire Boys and Girls

(Encyclopedia)Camp Fire Boys and Girls, American organization for boys and girls from birth to age 21, originally the Camp Fire Girls, for girls 6 to 18 years old. It was founded (1910) by Luther Halsey Gulick (186...

Hodeida

(Encyclopedia)Hodeida äl ho͞odāˈdä [key], city, W Yemen, on the Red Sea. An important port, it exported ...