New Britain herald., 1915-01-22
"S. w." "SNOkE EATERS
 HEAR OF MANY FIRES
Chef Farmer Gives Historical At-
 dress at Annual Bdq]et.

eight years ago that the prevailing custom of holding annual banQuets came into vogue and since then they have been so popular that not a year has gone by without one. Las- night assistant Superintendent Ernest w. Pelton presided as toastmaster and other factory officials were present as guests. Among the speakers were Purchasing Agent E. w. Christ, Sup erintendent c. F. Bennett, F. w. IT, wing, head of the piece work depart ment, and Radcliffe Smith.
 Chief Farmer Speaks.
 John J. Farmer, Chief of the Stan ley Works fire depa rtment, and for merly a member of the New Britain city department, made the principal after dinner speech, giving an inter- csting account of many great conf1a- grations his remarks following in part.
 ''Confa agrations are plentifully re- corded during Roman times and, as has been shown, all that the science of the period, coupled with most com mendable foreth ought could accom- plish was done to staVe off the peril. None the less, however. the magnif cent "Basilica Julia," a building de- voted to law courts, completed by Augustus in B. C.. A, after plans de- signed by Julius Caesar, was entirely gutted and remains to this day a relic of architectural antiquity and 8 per petual reminder that fire risks were, and probably ever will be, among the perils of existence.
 A i'm tated by an outbreak which lasted three days and burned out most of the residential part of the city. It has been popularly attributed to that pc culiarly eccentric emperor Nero, but in justice to that despot it must be added that the evidence of his being a "frebug" on gigantic scale is slight.
 Constantinople might not inaptly be described as the much burned, since it had three conf1agrations in the eighteenth century alone, one costing 100 lives and 15,O0O dwellings,; an- other 300 lives and S30,00O,O worth of damage, and the third 80, ,O0G dwell- ings and property loss Of s115, 5,00O,- 900.
 Destruction of Moscow.
 Moscow in 1883 was destroyed by fire and again in 1912 was destroyed by its own inhabitants, rather than let it fall into the hands of Napo- leon. The great fire of London oc- casioned a property loss of s6O,00O.- 900, while in 1861 fire in the business section cost $12,o0O,O0O and in 1874 the residential area suffered to the extent of s15, 100000. A confagra- tion of gigantic proportions gutted Smyrna in 17e6 and destroyed half the. city with a loss of $50,ooo,ooo.
 "The great fire of New York in 1885 destroyed 500 buildings with a loss of s20,000,000, while that of Boston in 1872 represented the sec- ond highest total extant, namely 100000. In the great fire of Chicago in 1871, 17,500 buildings were destroyed with a loss of 0,OOo,- 900.
 Toronto in 1904, St. Johns in 1892 and Hamburg in 1s42 were also viisted by serious fires, that in the German city doing damage of $35,- 00O,O00, while the Newfoundland cap- ital suffered to the extent of 26,oO0,- 900.
 'It would appear as though the American continent possessed
 
 truth, owing to peculiarities of con- struction. This is correct but Can- ada supplies an instance of what may happen when the fire department Is not equal to the needs of the situation and when building material is chiefly of wood. ,.. .-E.-: "
 "The town of Hull on the north bank of the Ottawa river, until April 26, 1900 was a thriving and prosperous municipality. On that spring morning fire broke out a quarter of mile from the main street of the little city and famed by fierce gale, it swept the city off the face of the earth, causing the loss of seven lives and a property loss of $17,000,O0O.
 For sheer horror, the disaster at the bazar in the Rue Jean Goujon Paris, on May 24, 1897, surpasses the widest dreams of the most morbid fiction writer, and will ever live as perpetual reminder to the thoughtless of the uncertainty of existence Ow- ing to the social prominence of its 15O vivtims, this catastrophe stands out unique in the annals of great fires. Recent Salem Fire. '"The approximate loss by the Salem conafgration of Thursday, June 25, 1914 was $12,000,O0O, with an esti- mated insurance loss of about s10,- l O,O00. About 1900 buildings. in 1 cluding 20 factories were destroyed 1 and 10000 rendered homeless The fire which started at 1:3O P M. burned over an area covering 29s acres, irregular in shape about one and a quarter miles long" Officers of Department The officers of the department are: Chief, John J. Farmer; first assistant, 1 w. c. Wall; second, H. F. Ladbury; l foremen, No. 1 company. Joseph Die