Fire evil spirits of Charnytskyi

     About a hundred years ago, in the early 20th century the chief of fire station in Lviv was Charnytskyyi Antin. Legend tells fantastic, almost incredible things that have happened with this firefighter. Charnytskyi was known in Lviv as very intelligent, conscientious and extremely fearless firefighter. Despite his leading job position he extinguished the most dangerous fires and often saved lives. His body was completely invulnerable to fire and he could safely, in a whirlwind of the strongest flame, go around without any burns. He could even squeeze hands with hot coals and so keep it a few minutes.
     This man was a true master and fervent adherent of his work. Mr. Antin wrote a book about the regularity of fires, which determined that most fires occur on Thursdays. On his opinion the German name of this day "Donnerstag" confirms this theory, as it means the day of Perun-Jupiter - a master of lightning Perun, or the day "when it roars and sparkles." He also worked on the latest technologies of firefighting. Antin Charnytskyi was often called "a man who defies burns" (Neopalymyi). The people made stories and gossip about him, which caused fear and admiration. The fireman became famous throughout the whole empire. People came to him from far lands, and his book was one of the most popular. The level of city fire safety was at the highest level.
     One day, returning from work, Antin noticed in the house the smell of smoke, and then the carbon monoxide. After checking with his servant Martin all that was possible, he did not find anything suspicious. When the servant raked the cinders out the stove, some magical power forced a fireman to pay attention to it and he asked the servant to pour it on his desk. Cinders reminded him letters. In about fifteen minutes of puzzles solving he read suddenly: "Go away! Do not touch us any more, otherwise you will get in trouble" and saw signatures: "Zharnyk, Chernivets and Dymnyk." But Charnytskyi  said that no one could scare him.
     It took a few months. Courageous firefighter bravely kept going to extinguish all fires, but at night he saw unusual hallucinations: Charnytskyi dreamed about long trips and these journeys seemed unusually bright. A servant Martin began to notice a ghost walking on stairs at night, but when he quickly ran into the bedroom of his owner, he convinced that a lord was sleeping peacefully in his bed.
     One March night a city was awakened by bells of Bernardine Monastery and St. Onufri Church, what informed about a big fire. At the same time several buildings in different city areas were burning. Lviv fire department was alarmed, but firefighters could find his boss nowhere. In one of the houses people managed to grab a wrecker with kerosene lamps in his hands. "Thief! Wrecker!" - Shout people. When he was pulled into the light, they saw that the man was dressed in a torn and burned uniform with epaulets of the Fire department chief.
His face was so distorted that no one could recognize Charnytskyi except his subordinates, who soon arrived here.
     A month after the great fire the former head of Lviv firefighters jumped out the window of mental hospital on Kulparkivska St. For a long time people told the legend of Neopalymyi’s soul, which left his body at night and never again could come back, because evil spirits of fire settled in his body.