GREAT FIRES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 180, 10 July 1900, Page 4

GREAT FIRES.

The fire at the Hoboken dock, in New York, is one of the most disastrous on 'record, taking the loss of both life and property into consideration. The great fire which burned out the heart of the city of Chicago in 1871 involved'much greater destruction of property, the value being estimated at .£58,000,000 sterling, and between 250 and 300 persons, perished, but the holocaust in New York is said to have swallowed 500 lives. But so far as loss of life is concerned, the most destructive fire of modern times was that at Santiago Cathedral in 1863. The immense building was crowded, the occassion being the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The decorations were most elaborate, but of very inflammable material, they caught fire, and almost in moment, before the congregation could escape, large masses of burning material fell, blocking the aisles and exits, and over 2000 persons, chiefly women, suffered the most horrible of deaths. The only parallel to that we can find is the great fire which destroyed London bridge and a large part of the City in 1212, when great crowds were hemmed in between the burning buildings and the river, and over 2000 perished by fire or water. The destruction of the Ring Theatre at Vienna, i through the fall of a spirit lamp, brought sudden death to 447 out of an audience of 2000. The fire at the charity fair in Paris a year or two ago cost many lives, and was notable for the number of the aristocracy who perished. What is known as the Great Fire of London, of which Defoe gives a graphic description, followed the plague in. 1666, cleared 436 acres, destroyed 13,500 houses besides St. Paul's Cathedral and many other public buildings, and undoubfci y caused great loss of life, but the estimates vary from under 100 to over a 1000. Another destructive fire, which consumed over 200 houses, and involved considerable loss of life, occurred in Cornhill in 1748. It is curious that most of the big fires of modern times ia London have been on wharves or warehouses abutting on wharves. There was one at Wapping in 1764, which destroyed wharves, several large warehouses, and 630 houses, the loss being estimated at .£1,000,000; no loss of life is recorded there. At Fenning's wharf, near London Bridge, there was a fire in 1830 which destroyed property worth'over £250,000. In 1838 agreat explosion at London Docks was followed by a most destructive fire involving several lives. The West Kent and New Hibernia wharves were destroyed in 1860, the financial loss being stated at over £200,000. What is commonly known as theTooley-streetfirein 1861, commenced at Cotton's wharf and spread over a large area, the loss in property being £2,000,000. Several men are said to have perished there, but the only authenticated case was that of Mr. Braidwood, the Superintendent of the London Fire Brigade. There was another great fire in Tooleystreetin 1891, which burned for over a fortnight. Taking it on the whole, the loss of life in London seems to have been very small, considering Vne number of large fires and the density of the population. The worst in that respect in recent years was at the Forest Gate Industrial School, where 26 boys were suffocated. Liverpool has been a most unfortunate town as regards loss of property through extensive fires, but there hardly any loss of life is recorded. There have, on the other hand, been fires in China and Japan which have cost immense numbers of lives, the flimsiness of the biddings causing conflagrations to spread with almost incredible rapidity, but the loss of property there has been comparatively small. The great fire of Moscow, which was deliberately caused by the patriotic Russians to checkmate i Napoleon, cust no lives, but 11,840 houses, besides palaces and churches, were destroyed. Another deliberate fire, though this time due to conqueror, wns that which lost to the world the priceless library of Alexandria in 640. From very early times the city had been celebrated for the great museum and library founded by Ptolemy in 298 ] B.C. That was destroyed in 40 8.0, when the city was captured by Julius Cajsar, but eighty years later Anthony replaced it by another famous collection of books from Pergamus. This in-1 creased until it became the famous library of the world when the Turks took the town,- and so little did the Turkish general, Amrou, value literature that he had used the books as fuel for the public baths, and the extent of the library may be judged from the fact that it took over six months to consume it. What, he said, was in accordance with the teachings of the Koran superfluous ; what was against the Koran was pernicious,