Fires and Firemen [pp. 199-208]

STATISTICS OF FIRES.
thousands of minor losses, we have one hundred and thirty millions
of dollars in property and effects, committed to the devouring element. But this cannot be supposed more than half the truth, considering Europe, Asia, and America, throughout all this period, and
taking into account the smaller losses, and that immense class of
losses not notice(P at all in our calculations, viz.: those which
grow out of the interruption of trade, etc., etc. We have, then, in a
fair estimate, $275,000,000. Two hundred and seventy-five millions
of dollars lost to the world from 1836 to 1346, by the ravages of fire
alone-an average of $27,000,000 a year! sufficient to pay all the
expenses of the American government in the same time; equal to the
whole foreign commerce of the United States for one year; one fifth
of the whole annual product of the United States in agriculture,
manufactures and commerce; more than our whole ballnking
capital from Maine to Louisiana; sufficient to purchase the absolute
necessaries of life one year for all the inhabitants of the Union;
double the cost of all the railroads in our country; greatly more
than the total of all State indebtedness! Who shall limit the
ravages of this amazing influence?
It will be observed of the catalogue of fires before given, that
$37,000,000 of loss occurred in our country, being an average of
$3,700,000 a year, which might be considered a fair average calculation annually for every period of ten years. Now, when it is considered, as before remarked, what numerous losses, direct and indirect,
have not been chronicled by us; to which, were the whole expense
of the fire department added, and all expenses of engines and machinery, and police, the average loss by fire during the last ten years
will not be rated lower than $8,000,000 or $9,000,000 annually, and
the average losses for years to come not less than $5,000,000 or
$6,000.00, an amount sufficient to carry on the railroad proposed
from Lake Michigan to the Pacific ocean, as fast as labor could
urge it!
In the tables we have given it must be regarded extraordinary that
great fires have, as it were, a contagious character, and occur at times
almost simultaneously in different parts of the country, and often in
the same place. Thus, we have two vast conflagrations in 1833 in
Constantinople; two great fires in 1839 in Mobile, within a few days of
each other; $9,000,000 of loss in the single month of October, 1839,
in different parts of the Union; two eniiormous fires in Quebec, 1845,
alnost the same month, and in three months, in the United States,
in 1845, upward of 13 or 14 millions of dollars destroyed! In cities,
too. certain districts appear to be fated. We have known a square
burnt three times to the ground in four or five years. Doubtless
these are not all remarkable coincidences and inscrutable providences.
The hand of man is not always idle!
The great fire of London is said to have been predicted long before
by zealots and soothsaying enthusiasts, and occurred almost in the
terms of the prediction.
But this interesting subject we must leave to the reader. It is
cal)abl)le of great extension, and we should be pleased if some one
w-ould resume it in our pages. For exampl)le, could we have the statistics of losses by fire since the Revolution, or in the lhistory of our
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