Fires and Firemen | Page 5

are very prolific of fires, as in these months
large public buildings are heated by flues, stoves, and boilers; but the
other months share mishaps of the kind pretty equally, with the
exception that the hot and dry periods of summer and autumn are
marked by the most destructive class of conflagrations, owing to the
greater inflammability of the materials, than in the damper portions of
the year. This, from the desiccating nature of the climate, is especially
the case in Canada and the United States, and, coupled with the
extensive use of wood in building, has a large influence in many parts
of the Continent. The following list of all the great fires which have
taken place for the last 100 years will bear out our statement:--
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- | | |
Value of | | | | Property | Month | Description of Property, &c. | Place |
Destroyed | Year
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
January | Webb's Sugar-house | Liverpool | £4,600 | 1829 |
Lancelot's-hey | " | 198,000 | 1833 | Town-Hall and Exchange | " |
45,000 | 1795 | Caxton Printing Office | " | -- | 1821 | Dublin and Co.
Warehouse | " | -- | 1834 | Suffolk-street | " | 40,000 | 1818 | Mile End |
London | 200,000 | 1834 | Royal Exchange | " | -- | 1838
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
February | York Minster | York | -- | 1829 | 3 West India Warehouses |
London | 300,000 | 1829 | House of Commons | Dublin | -- | 1792 |
Argyle Rooms | London | -- | 1830 | Camberwell Church | " | -- | 1841 |
Custom House | " | -- | 1814 | Hop Warehouse | Southwark | -- | 1851 |
J.F.Pawson and Co.'s | St. Paul's | | | Warehouses | Church Yard| 40,000

| 1853 | Pickford's Wharf | London | -- | 1824 | Goree Warehouses |
Liverpool | 50,000 | 1846
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- March
| New Orleans | United St. | $650,000 | 1853 | 15,000 houses at Canton |
China | -- | 1820 | 13,000 houses | Peru | -- | 1799 | Manchester |
England | -- | 1792 | Fawcett's Foundry | Liverpool | £41,000 | 1843 |
Oil Street | " | 12,600 | 1844 | Apothecaries' Hall | " | 7,000 | 1844 |
Sugar House, | | | | Harrington-street | " | 30,000 | 1830
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- April |
1000 Buildings | Pittsburg |$1,400,000 | 1845 | Savannah | United St. |
300,000 | 1852 | Parkshead, Bacon-street | Liverpool | £36,000 | 1851 |
Windsor Forest | England | -- | 1785 | Margetson's Tan-yard, | | | |
Bermondsey | London | 36,000 | 1852 | 1158 Buildings, Charleston |
United St. | -- | 1838 | Horsleydown | London | -- | 1780
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- May |
Dockhead | London | -- | 1785 | Great Fire, 1749 houses | Hamburgh | --
| 1842 | 23 Steamboats at St. Louis | United St. | $600,000 | 1849 |
15,000 houses | Quebec | -- | 1845 | York Minster | York | -- | 1840 |
Duke's Warehouses | Liverpool | -- | 1843 | Okell's Sugar-house | " | -- |
1799 | Gibraltar Row | " | -- | 1838 | Liver Mills | " | £8,700 | 1841 |
Billingsgate | London | -- | 1809
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- June |
Rotherhithe | London | -- | 1765 | Copenhagen | Denmark | -- | 1759 |
Montreal | Canada |$1,000,000 | 1852 | St. John | Newfoundland| -- |
1846 | Louisville | United St. | 100,000 | 1853 | 47 persons, Quebec
Theatre | Canada | -- | 1846 | 1300 houses, Quebec | " | -- | 1845 | Gutta
Percha Co., Wharf Road | London | £23,000 | 1853 | Humphrey's
Warehouse, Southwark| " | 100,000 | 1851
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+----- July |
Hindon | Wiltshire | -- | 1754 | 15,000 Houses | Constantinople -- | 1756
| 12,000 Houses | Montreal | -- | 1852 | 300 Houses | Philadelphia| -- |
1850 | 300 Buildings | N. America | $160,000 | 1846 | 302 Stores | New
York | 1,200,000 | 1846 | Apothecaries' Hall | Liverpool | -- | 1851 |
Glover's Warehouses | " | £17,000 | 1851 | Dockyard | Portsmouth | -- |
1770 | Wapping | London | 1,000,000 | 1794 | Ratcliffe Cross | " | -- |
1794 | Varna | Turkey | -- | 1854
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----

August | Dublin | Ireland | -- | 1833 | Gravesend | England | 60,000 |
1847 | Walker's Oil Mill | Dover | 30,000 | 1853 | Falmouth Theatre |
Falmouth |