cockloft

The combustion happened when oxygen met extreme heat contained in a common loft space beneath the roof connecting the businesses on the block, which firefighters call a “cockloft.”

Officials say two firefighters fell when the building’s cockloft collapsed.

The fire then spread to other businesses through a common cockloft, a part of the roof that is shared by adjoining buildings.

They live in little “tilts”—log huts of one large square room, with “bunks” at each end for the women-folk, and a “cockloft” above for the men and lads.

They found themselves in a long narrow cockloft, not more than six feet high at the highest, and insufferably hot.