Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-11-03
Tho Great Fires Of the World.
ANCIENT ROME.

ANCIENT ROME.
The burning of ancient Rome,
under Nero, about A. u. &c, was,
according to Gibbon, ga fire which
ragged beyond the memory or exam
pie Of former ages. The monu
ments of Grccian art and Roman
virtue, the trophies Of the Punic and
Gallic wars, the most holy temples
and the most splendid palaces were
involved in one common destruc-
tion. or the fourteen regions or
quarters into which Rome was di-
vidcd, four only subsisted entire,
three were lcveled with the ground,
and the remaining seven, which had
experienced the fury of the flames,
displayed a melancholy prospect Of
ruin and dcsolation." The number
Of houses in the fourteen districts of
Rome at that time numbered forty
eight thousand three hundred and
eighty-two. The population then
numbered one million two hundred
thousand.
THE LONDON FIRE.
The London fire commenced in a
bake shop, on the nj ght Of the 2d of
September, 1866. 1t lasted four
days and four nights, and in that
time it reduced to ashes fivc-sixths
Of the whole city. The ruins cover
ed space more than mile long
and half a mile broad. The value
Of the buildings and goods consum-
cd was from fifty to sixty million
dollars. A number of the circum-
stances of the London fire are so
nearly like these of the present one
that the reader will notice them at
once. The summer preceding had
been the hottest and drycst that had
been known for many years, and
London being then, for the most
part, built Of timber, filled up with
plaster. was rs dry and combustible
as trewood. The flames spread
with lightning rapidity, urged on
by a high wind, and laid waste the
city rs if they had = commission to
devour everything in their way
Clarendon says that the fire and the
wind continued in that excess all of
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday,
till afternoon, and scattered burning
brands in all quarters. The nights
were much more terrible than the
days, while the light was the same,
the light of the fires supplying that
of the sun.
The portions of the city burned
were those where the greatest ware
houses and the best shops were,
with the greatest part Of Fleet st.
and the places best inhabited. The
fire spread over 336 acres, destroy
ing l2,200 cdificcs. 80 churches
and many public buildings.
The Chicago fire has laid in ruins
fully 5000 acres, and quite as many
private and public buildings Of
greater value than those DESTROYED
two centuries ago in London. The
graphic descriptions given OF this
calamity by several British histo-
rians, will be read with interest,
and especially that in the "Diary
and correspondence of John Eve
lyn," who, of a calamity far less than
that by which Chicago is visited,
exclaimed: ooh, the miserable and
calamitous spectacle! Such rs hap
PLY the world has not seen since
the foundation OF it, nor can be out
done till the universal confla grafton
thereof"
Still less in proportions than Chi
cago's fire are those by which at
various times Moscow and Ham
burg have been visited, although
they are leading events in his
tory.
THE NEW YORK FIRE.
The greatest fire up to the pres
cnt, in this country, is that by which
New York suffered, in 1885. On
the night of Tuesday, the 18th of
December, there were two large
fires in New York, and it was day
light before the exhausted and al
most Pcrishing firemen reached their
homes, most Of their apparatus de-
ranged and frozen, for the thcrmom-
cter stood at zero, and the wind was
exceedingly fierce from the north
west.
On the following night, Wcdncs-
day, the 10th, the great calamity
betel the city. A fire commenced
in a store on Merchant street, and
it extended and continued to de-
strov for fifteen or more hours, till
fity-two acres OF houses, chiefly
great stores, were burned down, at
a loss OF property worth from fifteen
to twenty millions Of dollars, inclu-
ding a recently erected and superb
Merchants Exchange, with several
churches, and, indeed, almost every
building within its range.
The cont'agration was only ar
rested by an extensive blowing up
Of houses by gun powder, obtained
from a distance Of five milcs-the
depot oft the navy yard at Brooklyn.
The engines and the exertions of
the iircmcn were powcrless, AS the
water either froze solid in the hose
or was scattered in hail from the
nozzles of the pipes.
The part Of the city swept by the
fire was emphatically the business
part, the great commercial empo-
rum. The following is the esti-
mate of the houses destroyed:
Wall street 8; Pearl 10; South 81;
Water rs; Front so; Merchant IS;
Exchange Place 81; Exchange St.
81; William a.; Old slip 33; Co
cnties Slip IS; Stone street so;
Hanover Square 3; Beaver %; Gov
ernor's Lane 20: Jones' Lane 10;
Cuylcr's Alley 20; Mill St. 80.
The burnt portion was, however,
quickly rebuilt, and the city suffer
cd but little, save in y temporary
check to business. The city cor
poration raised s6,000,000 ON its
bonds to lend to sufferers; and the
United States bank, though about
winding up its affairs, advanced
L.