Fires and Firemen | Page 6

-- | 1792 | Buildings, Albany | United St. | $600,000 | 1849 |
10,000 Houses | Constantinople -- | 1782 | Smithfield | London |
£100,000 | 1822 | East Smithfield | " | -- | 1840 | Bankside | " | -- |
1814 | Gateshead | England | -- | 1854
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
September | 46 Buildings | New York | $500,000 | 1839 | 200 Houses,
Brooklyn | " | 150,000 | 1848 | Scott, Russell, and Co., Ship | | | |
Builders, Mill Wall | London | L80,000 | 1853 | St. Paul's Church,
Covent | | | | Garden | " | -- | 1795 | 60 Houses, Rotherhithe | " | -- | 1791 |
Astley's Amphitheatre | " | -- | 1794 | Mark Lane | " | 150,000 | 1850 |
Covent Garden Theatre | " | -- | 1808 | Store Street and Tottenham | | | |
Court Road | " | -- | 1802 | Macfee's | Liverpool | 40,000 | 1846 | Gorees
| " | 400,000 | 1802 | Formby Street | " | 380,000 | 1842 | Cowdray
House | Sussex | -- | 1793
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
October | 52 Buildings | Philadelphia| $100,000 | 1839 | Grimsdell's,
Builder's Yard | Spitalfields| -- | 1852 | Withwith's Mills | Halifax |
£35,000 | 1853 | Robert-street | N.Liverpool | 150,000 | 1838 |
Lancelot's-hey | Liverpool | 80,000 | 1854 | Memel Great Fire | Prussia |
-- | 1854 | London Wall | London | 84,000 | 1849 | 20 Houses,
Rotherhithe | " | -- | 1790 | Lancelot's-hey | Liverpool | 30,000 | 1834 |
Wapping | London | 100,000 | 1823 | Houses of Parliament | " | -- | 1834
| Pimlico | " | -- | 1834
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
November | Royal Palace | Lisbon | -- | 1794 | New York | United St. | --
| 1835 | 20 Houses, Shadwell | London | -- | 1796 | Aldersgate-street | " |
£100,000 | 1783 | Cornhill | " | -- | 1765 | Liver-street | Liverpool |
6,000 | 1829 | Wright and Aspinall, | | | | Oxford-street | London | 50,000
| 1826 | Hill's Rice Mills | " | 5,000 | 1848
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----
December | Dock Yard | Portsmouth | -- | 1776 | Patent Office and Post
Office | Washington | -- | 1836 | 600 Warehouses | New York
|$4,000,000 | 1835 | Fenwick-street | Liverpool | £36,000 | 1831 |
Brancker's Sugar-house | " | 34,000 | 1843
----------+--------------------------------+-------------+-----------+-----

(Extracted from the Royal Insurance Company's Almanac, 1854.)
One reason, perhaps, why there is such a general average in the number
of conflagrations throughout the year, is, that the vast majority occur in
factories and workshops where fire is used in summer as well as winter.
This supposition appears at first sight to be contradicted by the fact,
that nearly as many fires occur on Sunday as on any other day of the
week. But when it is remembered that in numerous establishments it is
necessary to keep in the fires throughout that day, and as in the
majority of cases a very inadequate watch is kept, it is at once apparent
why there is no immunity from the scourge. Indeed, some of the most
destructive fires have broken out on a Sunday night or on a Monday
morning--no doubt because a large body of fire had formed before it
was detected. A certain number of accidents occur in summer in private
houses from persons on hot nights opening the window behind the
toilet glass in their bedrooms, when the draught blows the blind against
the candle. Swallows do not more certainly appear in June, than such
mishaps are found reported at the sultry season.
If we watch still more narrowly the habits of fires, we find that they are
active or dormant according to the time of the day. Thus, during a
period of nine years, the percentage regularly increased from 1.96 at 9
o'clock A.M., the hour at which all households might be considered to
be about, to 3.34 at 1 P.M., 3.55 at 5 P.M., and 8.15 per cent at 10 P.M.,
which is just the time at which a fire left to itself by the departure of the
workmen, would have had swing enough to become visible.
The origin of fires is now so narrowly inquired into by the officers of
the Brigade, an by means of inquests, that we have been made
acquainted with a vast number of curious causes, which would never
have been suspected. From an analysis of fires which have occurred
since the establishment of the Brigade, we have constructed the
following Tables:--
Curtains 2,511 Candle