The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-11
GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY.
Enormous Libraries Which Were
Wiped Out by the Flames
Centuries Ago.
Plaques at Moscow and London
Stayed by the Devouring
Element.
New York Lost &3O,OOO.O0O Chicago
800, OOO, 900, and Boston &75 900, 900
In Their Big Blazes.

Among the great fires Of history, un-
doubleday the burning of the %Serapmum
library at Alexandria, in the year $40, by
the Caliph Omar l., is most widely
mourned, as the destruction of b00,O0t
volumes cut off much of the record of hu
man knowledge at the time, says the Sci
entiGc American. The general impression
of tho Importance and significance of this
fire is, no doubt. augmented in great meas
ure by the alleged answer of this Saracen
conqueror, who replied to the protest
against the burning with: "If these books
are against the Koran they are pernicious
n must be destroyed. II they agree
with the Koran they are redundant and
need not be preserved and it is not gener-
ally remembered that Julius Caesar burned
q larger library of 1000 0 volumes at Alex
andria, known as the Brucian library, b.
@. 48, nearly 700 years before the burning
OF the Serapeum library by Omar I.
At times of sack and pillage Jerusalem
has been burned time and again, the most
noted instance being at the seige by the
Romans under Titus during the year
seventy, when a faction called the Sicaril
set the city on fire in many places. and
eventually ], 100000 of the inhabitants per-
tshed by fire and the sword.
Con~stantinople has, like all Oriental
cities suffered severely from fires. a large
part of such losses being undoubtedly due
to the fatalism of the Mahometans, who
bow to their kismet. Said a sultan: "If it
be the will of Allah that my favorite city
burn, 1t is the will of Allah.'
In D~illaway's quaint account of travels in
the Levant in 1897, it is stated that the sui
tan is summoned three times to a fire in
Constantinople, and if the fire lasts one
hour he is obliged to attend in person and
bring mules laden with piasters for the
Gremen.
A great fire at Rome, 10 B. c., caused the
Emperor Augustus to take measures for in
creasing the defence against fire, which had
been hitherto in the hands of bodies of po-
lice, numbering twenty or thirty, stationed
in various portions of the city. and rein
forced at times OF fire by companies of vol
unteers. He appointed new officers with
the rank of magistrates, who were entitled
to wear magisterial robes. Each was at
tended by two lictors and provided with n
fire organization of 600 slaves.
1t is probable that this was not entirely
satisfactory in its operation, because six
years later another fire caused him to I'M
dertake further reforms o N a scale fully
characteristic of him who found the city
built of brick and left it with palaces of
MARBLE" He increased the fire department
to a scale commensurate with the needs of
the city. Seven thousand freemen were
organized into seven battalions, and one
battalion was quartered in everv alternate
ward of the city. These men made careful
inspections of the kitchens, of the heating
apparatus, and of the water supply in the
houses, and every fire was the subject of
judicial examination. The cost of the or
ganization was maintained by a tax of 20
per cent on the sale of slayes.
Two notable examples of contagious
stopped by confagrations are the burning
1870, when the plague was stopped, and
secondly the fire in London September 9,
1866. which also stopped the plague, and it
has been unknown there since.
This London fire Is properly called the
great fire of modern history, because tho
reforms which were started in consequence
of it are living issues in the municipal af-
fairs of to-day. The fire was caused by an
overheated bakers oven, and in the course
of four days it swept over 436 acres, burn
ing 1920 houses, eighty-nine churches.
and st. Paufs cathedral, causing a damage
Under the direction of Pepys the fire was
stopped by blowing up buildings, which
was, at the time, the only method of reduc-
ing a fire that had grown beyond the capac-
ityhof the small fire engines. These were
on large tubs, and threw a stream of water
on the FIRE. as hose was not invent
ed until.ten years later (1672) by Van der
Heide.
The cities of America, on account of the
larger amount OF wood in their construc-
tion, and the prevalence of irresponsible
methods of building, have suffered severely
from fires.
The first devastating fire in America was
UrNhNhlV the nna ncHn rrinu a at RncfNp h(arph |
20, 1850, when 400 dwellings and stores were
burned, causing a loss of !4100. 600.
In the colony of Massachuset 8 bay reeu-
lations in regard to construction of Chin
neys and thatchod roofs we're made as
eaSly as March is, 1850. and various enact
nance ut the town meeting of Boston,
March IA, 1645, made provision that each
h1useholder SHOULD have ladders long
enough to, reach to the ridge of his house,
and a pole "about twelve feet long, with a
good large swob at the end of it," and va
fious graded penalties we're provided for
those not conforming to the law.
Philadelphia has been remarkably free
from confaGration in comparison with
other large cities. 1t does not appear to
have been visited by a great fire until Jan
nary $. 1850, when a fire along the Delaware
acres, caused n loss of life esti-
mated as high as thirty-three. in addition
to 100 wounded and a pecuniary loss of
81. 500, 900.
New York was visited by a severe con-
faagration in the southern part of the city
on December 16, 1885, which extended over
m area OF forty acres, destroying GA houses
and causing a loss which has been esti-
as high as $50, 600, 600. on which there
was only $4,000. 600 insurance-an amount
which ruined several insurance companies
One of the first of the more recent confla-
g~rations was the burning of Portland, Me-,
July 4, 1865. The fire was caused by a boy
a freeracker into a cooper's shop
for the avowed purpose of soaring the work
men. In this respect the act was an unpar-
alleled success, the damage being about &c.,
DOC. 900.
The Chicago fire, October g., 1871, was one
of tho largest in all history, devastating an
area of three and one-half square miles and
q loss of about $780, C0,0 600, on
insurance was paid to the amount of
about 800. COG, 600. Two hundred and fifty
ives were reported lost in this fire.
Thirteen months later. to a day. Boston
vas visited by a fire which extended over an
,rea of sixty-fve acres, burning tho best
mercantile buildings in the city and caus-
Ing a damage of $50, 000, 00o, on which there
an insurance to over 500, 900, 900.