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Random Facts about Great Fires in History
GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY
The loss of life and property in the wilful destruction by
fire and sword of the principal cities of ancient
history--Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Carthage, Palmyra,
and many others--is largely a matter of conjecture. The
following is a memorandum of the chief conflagrations of the
current era:
In 64, A. D., during the reign of
Nero, a terrible fire raged in Rome for eight days,
destroying ten of the fourteen wards. The loss of life and
destruction of property is not known. In 70 A. D., Jerusalem
was taken by the Romans and a large part of it given to the
torch, entailing an enormous destruction of life and
property.
In 1106 Venice, then a city of immense
opulence, was almost, wholly consumed by a fire, originating
in accident or incendiarism.
In 1212 the greater part of London was
burned.
In 1666 what is known as the Great
Fire of London raged in the city from September 2 to 6,
consuming 13,200 houses, with St. Paul's Church, 86 parish
churches, 6 chapels, the Guild Hall, the Royal Exchange, the
Custom House, 52 companies halls, many hospitals, libraries
and other public edifices. The total destruction of property
was estimated at $53,652,500. Six lives were lost, and 436
acres burnt over.
In 1679 a fire in Boston burned all
the warehouses, eighty dwellings, and vessels in the
dock-yards; loss estimated at $1,000,000.
In 1700 a large part of Edinburgh was
burned; loss unknown. In 1728 Copenhagen was nearly
destroyed; 1,650 houses burned.
In 1736 a fire in St. Petersburg
burned 2,000 houses.
In 1729 a fire in Constantinople
destroyed 12,000 houses, and 7,000 people perished. The same
city suffered a conflagration in 1745, lasting five days;
and in 1750 a series of three appalling fires: one in
January, consuming 10,000 houses; another in April
destroying property to the value of $5,000,000, according to
one historian, and according to another, $15,000,000; and in
the latter part of the year another, sweeping fully 10,000
houses more out of existence. It seemed as if Constantinople
was doomed to utter annihilation.
In 1751 a fire in Stockholm destroyed
1,000 houses and another fire in the same city in 1759
burned 250 houses with a loss of $2,420,000.
In 1752 a fire in Moscow swept away
18,000 houses, involving an immense loss.
In 1758 Christiania suffered a loss of
$1,250,000 by conflagration.
In 1760 the Portsmouth (England) dock
yards were burned, with a loss of $2,000,000.
In 1764 a fire in Konigsburg, Prussia,
consumed the public buildings, with a loss of $3,000,000;
and in 1769 the city was almost totally destroyed.
In 1763 a fire in Smyrna destroyed
2,600 houses, with a loss of $1,000,000; in 1772 a fire in
the same city carried off 3,000 dwellings and 3,000 to 4,000
shops, entailing a loss of $20,000,000; and in 1796 there
were 4,000 shops, mosques, magazines, etc., burned. In 1776,
six days after the British seized the city, a fire swept off
all the west side of New York city, from Broadway to the
river.
In 1771 a fire in Constantinople
burned 2,500 houses; another in 1778 burned 2,000 houses; in
1782 there were 600 houses burned in February, 7,000 in
June, and on August 12 during a conflagration that lasted
three days, 10,000 houses, 50 mosques, and 100 corn-mills,
with a loss of 100 lives. Two years later a fire, on March
13, destroyed two-thirds of Pera, the loveliest suburb of
Constantinople, and on August 5 a fire in the main city,
lasting twenty-six hours, burned 10,000 houses. In this same
fire-scourged city, in 1791, between March and July, there
were 32,000 houses burned, and about as many more in 1795;
and in 1799 Pera was again swept with fire, with a loss of
13,000 houses, including many buildings of great
magnificence. In 1784 a fire and explosion in the dock
yards, Brest, caused a loss of $5,000,000.
But the greatest destruction of life
and property by conflagration, of which the world has
anything like accurate records, must be looked for within
the 1800's. Of these the following is a partial list of
instances in which the loss of property amounted to
$3,000,000 and upward: 1802--Liverpool: $5,000,000
1803--Bombay: 3,000,600 1805--St. Thomas: 30,000,000
1808--Spanish Town: 7,500,000 1812--Moscow, burned five
days; 30,800 houses destroyed: 150,000,000
1816--Constantinople, 12,000 dwellings, 3,000 shops: ----
1820--Savannah: 4,000,000 1822--Canton nearly destroyed:
---- 1828--Havana, 350 houses: ---- 1835--New York ("Great
Fire"): 15,000,000 1837--St. Johns, N. B.: 5,000,000
1838--Charleston, 1,158 buildings: 3,000,000 1841--Smyrna,
12,000 houses: ---- 1842--Hamburg, 4,219 buildings, 100
lives lost: 35,000,000 1845--New York, 35 persons killed:
7,500,000 1845--Pittsburgh, 1,100 buildings: 10,000,000
1845--Quebec, May 28, 1,650 dwellings: 3,750,000
1845--Quebec, June 28, 1,300 dwellings: ---- 1846--St.
Johns, Newfoundland: 5,000,000 1848--Constantinople, 2,500
buildings: 15,000,000 1848--Albany, N. Y., 600 houses:
3,000,000 1849--St. Louis: 3,000,000 1851--St. Louis, 2,500
buildings: 11,000,000 1851--St. Louis, 500 buildings:
3,000,000 1851--San Francisco, May 4 and 5, many lives lost:
10,000,000 1851--San Francisco, June: 3,000,000
1852--Montreal, 1,200 buildings: 5,000,000 1861--Mendoza
destroyed by earthquake and fire, 10,000 lives lost: ----
1862--St. Petersburg: 5,000,000 1802--Troy, N. Y., nearly
destroyed: ---- 1862--Valparaiso almost destroyed: ----
1864--Novgorod, immense destruction of property: ----
1865--Constantinople, 2,800 buildings burned: ----
1806--Yokohama, nearly destroyed: ---- 1865--Carlstadt,
Sweden, all consumed but Bishop's residence, hospital and
jail; 10 lives lost: ---- 1866--Portland, Me., half the
city: 11,000,000 1866--Quebec, 2,500 dwellings, 17 churches:
---- 1870--Constantinople, Pera, suburb: 26,000,000
1871--Chicago--250 lives lost, 17,430 buildings burned, on
2,124 acres: 192,000,000 1871--Paris, fired by the Commune:
160,000,000 1872--Boston: 75,000.000 1873--Yeddo, 10,000
houses: ---- 1877--Pittsburgh, caused by riot: 3,260,000
1877--St. Johns, N. B., 1,650 dwellings, 18 lives lost:
12,500,000
From the above it appears that the five greatest fires on
record up to the 1800's, reckoned by destruction of
property, are: Chicago fire, of Oct. 8 and 9, 1871:
$192,000,000 Paris fires, of May, 1871: 160,000,000 Moscow
fire, of Sept. 14-19, 1812: 150,000,000 Boston fire, Nov.
9-10, 1872: 75,000.000 London fire, Sept. 2-6, 1666:
53,652,500 Hamburg fire, May 5-7, 1842: 35,000,000 Taking
into account, with the fires of Paris and Chicago, the great
Wisconsin and Michigan forest fires of 1871, in which it is
estimated that 1,000 human beings perished and property to
the amount of over $3,000,000 was consumed, it is plain that
in the annals of conflagrations that year stands forth in
gloomy pre-eminence.
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