The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-10-13
Terms $500 per annx,n. s,, oJ,o..o

DIV ,'ii.'su 'netropolis at later dates the most ra
~ ~" VI special uote being he burning
VI 'ne ooI'oa ana other whatves of Toolev
street street, 10 June and Jaly, 1861. The fire coz
nearly month. Several persons ws,rs E;,,.J
ard proDerty was destroyed to the value Of
e2 100000 'Ai"o VI
on the oh OF May, 1s43, ire broke out in
.ne city OF Hamburg, Germa ~, which RACED
with great fury for four days, DESTROYING abont
tuie'hlrd OF the city. Sixty one streets con
an5 53,Ig ~ l''41 houses we're utterly laid waste
~ 'n0usauds 1ud of people were rendered hutpe-
Is. Ihere were few public buildings of va ue
oo;ol'i yeu, ana that portion of the city was
manner, than before '""''"i
,h hn d .n,s country great fires especially before
Tue uays OF improved fire epoipes bsva ha'
III paeEsly ly hequent, and New York has
nau ber inli share. In September 1776 go
after The city came into the hanJs =, io' 't' soou
$50, ooo houses were DESTROYED. iormirg ar ,hst
time large part of the town The h,iiJ;s
were rather huddled together at the lower end
o. 'nG LISA. anu were mostly of wood, and
laudt street was swept bare New Vork -,
visited by another coDhlagratinn, the oreatsS,
in its history, on the 10Th OF December. 1s35
Six hundred warehouses, aud property to the
extent of over 800, 900 900, were consumed Our
Oldest inhabitants still remember the horrors
OF that terrible disaster
On the 9th OF September, 1889, The city had
another severe visitation, when orty six build
ings ana property valued at $40 900 900 were
destroyed. The next cOnfag alton OF large tx
tent in this city took place on the 18Th OF July,
1845, when 302 stores and dwellings in the low
er part OF the city we're destroyed. These,
however, We're of comparatively inferior value,
the whole loss amaunting to 50 100000 Four
lives were lost on this occasion. Since that
time, owing to the increased efficiency of the
means employed to prevent and extineuish
e.. ClpV have UenefaIlv haan
siugle building or a small group
In the same year of the last great fire in
New York, 1845, Quebec suffered terribly from
the same destrooiug element. On the 28tb of
May fire broke out in the Faubeuag st.
Roch which destroyed 5000 buildings before
it could be quenched. Several lives were also
lost. Exactly one month later ], 300 buildings
were burned, aud by these two coudagrations
nearly two-thirds OF the city was laid 10 ruins.
The pecuniary loss has been stated at So OOO,-
600. In the same year, on the 18th of June,
nearly the whole town of st. Johus, New
foundand, was destroyed, aud 5000 people
were rendered homeless.
Albany suffered from great confagration
on the b OF September, 1848 Six hundred
buildings, besides steamb 'aIs, piers, and other
property, valued altogether at SO 000, 900, We're
burned. Twenty-four acres OF laud WITHIN the
city limits were covered with ruins.
ST. LOUIS had great fire in May, 1S49, when
fifteen blocks of houses and twenty three
over So 100000.
Philadelphia has been fortunate in having
few great fires, but one occurred in that city
on the ninth of July, 1850, which DESTROYED
$50 buildings. These were OF inferior value,
and the whole loss was but 81 500 900, though
twenty five persons were killed, nine drowned
and 120 injured.
A large portion of San Francisco was des-
troyed in 1851. On the 81 OF Nav a fire
broke out winch consumed nearly $500 build
ings a loss OF 80 500 900 and several lives. A
little over a month later, on the 22i of June,
900 more buildings we're burned, valued at
$4,000, 900, or more
Twelve acres of laod in Syracuse were
burned over on the 8sh of November, 1856.
About 100 buildings Were de -troyed, anu the
loss of property amounted to 81, 100000
1t seems seems probable from the reports
thus far received that the terrible fire in Chi
cago has no parallel in modern history, unless
in the confagrations kiEdled by war. Even
the great fire of Loadon, though relatively
more destructive, did not equal it in absolute
extent. The London of that day was little
more than two thirds the size OF tbs Chicago
of to-day, having less than 260, 900 inhabitants; |;
and if, as reported two-thlrds OF Chicago is
ruins, the desolated territory of Chicago is
far greater than the five-sixths of Loadon said
to have been laid waste in 1866.