The Monmouth inquirer., 1898-03-17
NOTABLE FIRES
Those in the United states Have Proved
the Least Serious,

Those in the United States Have Proved
the Least Serious,
The largest fire OF the year 1877
was what has come to be known as tnt
Aldersgate street fire in London, the
damage from which, variOusly estimat'
ed at first, has been put officially at
SIC. 1000. 900. Ten million dollar fires
are very rare nowadays III countries
equipped however imperfectly, with
apparatus for extinguishment Of fires
and in the United States confagrations
of such dimensions are practically un'
known. In former times, however,
such fires were not so rare, and whai
is known as the great New York fire
of 1885 involved a pecuniary loss ol
$50 900. 900. which represents of course
a much larger amount relatively than
would such fire to-day, the purchas-
ing power of money being probably
grea' er at that time ard moreover tht
system of insurance being such that
by the failure of a large number OF
companies the insured were practical
ly left without any compensation foI
the losses which they sustained. The
number of buildings burned in the
great New York fire. which started IN
what was then known as Merchant
street. in the Wall street district, was
700. and it was rot the fireman who
put ,stcp to it. but tho United States
sailors who came over from the navy
yard and blew up a nH.Eer Of build
ings.
The Chieago fire of 1871 n~tailed a
loss of s190 900 aAo ard coveis ~ area
or more than 1000 acres ec-slmine
II. 900 buiIdings The BostoH IRE Nith
which it is conpared usually, wsif' 9 s.
cured little more tfan one yea y
entailed a loss of $50 000 900 and te-
troyed 800 buildings. but these were OF
a much more substantial character
than those burned in Chicago Only
about twenty per cent of the Chicago
fire losses We're paid. but more than
sixty per cent. of the Boston losses
were met by insurance.
The aggregate losses in New York
city from fires of all kinds occurring
during the year are now about $3,500'.
900 and in any recent year they have
never been SO large as 100000 The
nearest approach to that was in 1881,
when they were $6,990.000, the largest
item of which was supplied by What
was known as the Bleecker street fire
at the corner of Green and Bleecker on
St Patrick's day, the loss from which
was $1,466, 600 In the same year a
fire on South street in e2rembor 'an-
tailed loss of $264,0 600 and another on
Fulton street, one week later, caused
by the vapor of benzine igniting from
the heat of stove $220000 Such fire
losses however, are so rare in New
York as to become exceptional, but
these IN 1891 were unusually large, and
further included the burning Of The
Fifth Avenue theatre on January ? at a
less of s170, 200; fire in Franklin street
in May entailing loss of 100000, and
in the factory of the New York print
works in Jane street in July, entailing
a loss of $225,000.
The largest and most serious fire OF
which there is authentic record in Ger
many was in Hamburg in 1912, the loss
resulting from it being 35000,0 goo.
The great fire" of London took place
in 1866, and consumed about two
thirds of the city, but there has never
been any very accurate computation OF
the loss, and perhaps no such computa-
tion was possible There have been
many serious fires, in France, but no
one of them large enough to take rank
in respect to loss among the notable
fires of which there is a record.