Miraculous preservation of the Tabernacle roof from fire

On the night of July 4th, a toy balloon launched near the Temple Block in Salt Lake City drifted over the Tabernacle. As it hovered over the roof, the lower part containing the fire used to generate gas dropped onto the shingles. Although it ignited a ten-foot square section, a man on the roof extinguished it with a hose before it could fall through the skylight, which would have surely resulted in the building's complete destruction.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 49, No. 31 (1 August 1887)):

On the night of July 4th a toy balloon was sent up from a street near the Temple Block. The balloon sailed directly over the Tabernacle, and when over the top the lower part of the balloon containing the fire which is used in generating the gas necessary, dropped off on to the roof. A quarter of an hour afterward the fire alarm was rung and the engine and hose carts were soon on the ground. The roof was within a ten footsquare on fire, but with the use of a huse attached to a hydrant it was extinguished by a man on the top of the building. The loss will not amount to more than $50, but had the fire fallen through the skylight a few feet southerly from where it did fall, nothing could have prevented the complete destruction of the building.