New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-01-01
SOME STATISTICS or THE TE4R.


WORK OF TIE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
THE NUMBER OF FIRES IN THIS CITY LAST YEAR
17sO, AND THE loss S5SO0.000.
According to the record Of the Fire Depart
mcnt the losses by fire last year were greatly In excess
OF those OF 1850 The Of the losses for lSsllS IN
round Numbers S5,S0OOOO; the total In 1850 was
S3Is3I4O Had it not for the heavy losses incur
red by the burning Of the Morrc warehouse the bonded
warehouse in sOuth-st. and the two recent fires IN
broadway the total woud have been less than S2OOO-
OOO The loss by the first is estimated ut SlOuOOoO That
by he bonded warehouse at $20O00OO; and those by
the Broadway fires at 100000 Nearly 20 per cent Of
the entire loss for the resulted from these four dis
astrous fires, three Of which occurred in the last
month.
An examination Of the records for previous years
shows that the first year under The present system usG6
vs more disastrous in uont Of g amount Of property
destroyed than any year that hat followed The losses
for that year, from 79G 6res amounted 10 %64@sOOO.
The next year showed little Improvement The sum of the
losses being 5j7ll,O0O. This amount was reduced by
nearly ~ 100000 in 1868 From 1869 TO 1873 the yearly
loss was usually lcs77hou $2jO0.OJO After 1874, when
the total oas was SfO326lO there not a disastrous
year until 1873, WHOM the total reached $j,G7l,5s0
The number OF Gi I The last sixteen years has varied
from 70G to l,7s3 yearly That there many more
fires than formerly Is accounted for 10y the fact tha
the city has grown rapidly AMI has been made to me de
the district above the Harlem. In 1866 there were hy
two companies Win JJ2 men; now there are Sixty HNc
companies wihncarly 500 men.
Some idea OF the magnitude ri IN" Fyetcm u oitancd
when il ia known that the Department has telegraph
through POS miles o. streets and about 700 alarm
boxes There Is executive al of eighteen. There
are Twelve chiefs OF battalion 1913 company officers and
about 500 uniformed men. The apparatus OF the Depart
consists of about 3JO7ram engines nose tcHde,Ic
cYtineu.-rs wrcCEuG ;Ucks, hook and ladder trucks,
luei wagons ho,e carriages, and hand ENGINES Tho
CoH ,sgU. also have -char"c Ot the Bureau OF COM
bustiDlcS and OF she Iusue"tOu of Buildings.
Commissioner Van C1jt said yesterday mat It was de-
signed 10 establish company Black wells Island for
the better protection OF the public institutions there
There has Decn an the Island, hul much time
is lost in getting across the river. 10 * also pro-
posed 10 procure another lire boat, the has
done good service at fires along the river front About
TIE Only other addition to be made Ia the facilities ~ the
department Will Doe large supply wagon, which Will ne
stationed ia StOucst IL will carry all sorts Of supplies
except ladders. Mr. Van COT also said that definite
ton would Dee taken ia regard 10 precautions against
fires Ht the theatres soon the reports were all in
ana examined. 10 was. he sad. The intention 20 make
the theatre bindings safe, If possible. any other
structures iu the city.
A table showing the number " fires for each year
since ~G6 ara the of the losses FOX each year Is