1893 text
Scar-fire or scarefire. An alarm of fire. One of the little pieces in Herrick’s “Hesperides” is entitled “The Scar-fire,” but the word sometimes was used, as in the text, for the fire itself. Fuller, in his “Worthies,” speaks of quenching scare-fires.
Terry F Link to this
THE SCARE-FIRE.
by Robert Herrick
WATER, water I desire,
Here's a house of flesh on fire ;
Ope the fountains and the springs,
And come all to bucketings :
What ye cannot quench pull down ;
Spoil a house to save a town :
Better 'tis that one should fall,
Than by one to hazard all.
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herrick/scar....
Terry F Link to this
Scarefire:
(n.) An alarm of fire.
(n.) A fire causing alarm.
http://websters.wunderdictionary.com/dictionary...
Pauline Link to this
Companion's Large Glossary:
sudden conflagration