Read this excerpt from The Great Fire. Several minutes passed before Schaffer looked up from what he was doing and saw flames leaping wildly into the black sky. The light was from a different fire after all; he'd been fooled because this new blaze was almost directly behind the still-flickering remnants of the Saturday October 7 fire.

He studied the flames, trying to determine their exact location. This wasn't easy because of the distance and tall buildings between him and the flames. In addition, the moonless sky was made even murkier by the swirling, smoky haze. Schaffer signaled down the speaking tube and had his assistant strike Box 342. This sent engines rumbling through the streets — to a location almost a mile away from the O'Learys' barn.

What caused Schaffer to instruct his assistant to strike Box 342, accidentally sending firefighters to the wrong place?

the leaping flames in the sky
the dark, hazy night and the tall buildings
the remnants of the previous fire
the loud, rumbling engines

He leaned his head against the wall; his eyes were shut, his hands clasped in each other, and his body seemed to be sustained in an upright position merely by the cellar-door against which he rested his left shoulder. the lethargy into which he was sunk seemed scarcely interrupted by my feeling his hand and his forehead. his throbbing temples and burning skin indicated a fever . . there was only one circumstance that hindered me from forming an immediate determination in what manner this person should be treated. my family consisted of my wife and a young child. our servant-maid had been seized, three days before, by the reigning malady, and, at her own request, had been conveyed to the hospital. we ourselves enjoyed good health, and were hopeful of escaping with our lives. our measures for this end had been cautiously taken and carefully adhered to. they did not consist in avoiding the receptacles of infection, for my office required me to go daily into the midst of them; nor in filling the house with the exhalations of gunpowder, vinegar, or tar. they consisted in cleanliness, reasonable exercise, and wholesome diet. who is the story’s first-person narrator