Великий Бостонский Пожар 1872 года

The largest fire in Boston

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p. m. on Saturday, November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83–87 Summer Street. The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, after it had consumed about of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings and much of the financial district, and caused $73.5 million in damage (equivalent to $0.0735 in 1872 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years billion in ). The destruction to the buildings was valued at $13.5 million and the personal property loss was valued at $60 million.

Building owners in Boston had few incentives to implement fire safety measures. Buildings were often insured above value or at full value. Arson to gain insurance money was not uncommon.

In 1852, Boston became the first city in the world to install telegraph based fire alarm boxes. The boxes served as a fire warning system. If the lever inside of the alarm box was pulled, the fire department was notified, and the alarm could be traced back to the box via a coordinate system so that firefighters were dispatched to the correct location. All of the fire alarm boxes were kept locked from when the system was installed in 1852 until after the Great Fire of 1872 to prevent false alarms. A few citizens in each area of Boston were given a key to the boxes, and all other citizens had to report fires to the key holders, who could then alert the fire department. In 1872, witnesses watched the fire spread before the area's key holder was found and could unlock the alarm box to alert the Boston Fire Department. Twenty minutes after the fire was first noticed, firefighters arrived on the scene. The existing water main pipelines were old and leaky, making the pressure in the pipes lower than acceptable. The pressure was so low that the pipes could not produce enough force to reach the top floors and roofs of newer buildings. When Damrell heard of the horse sickness he preemptively hired an additional 500 men to replace the horsepower that would typically haul the engines and other equipment to the sites of fires.

In 1871, Chicago suffered massive destruction and an estimated 300 casualties in the Great Chicago Fire. Damrell, along with fire chiefs from various large cities, traveled to Chicago after the fire in an attempt to learn from the city's mistakes. Like Boston, Chicago buildings were made primarily of wood and building codes were not enforced, making the densely developed neighborhoods susceptible to fire. General Phil Sheridan, in charge of military relief in Chicago post fire, did not condemn the city's use of gunpowder to blow up buildings to create firebreaks. In theory, a firebreak creates a gap in flammable material that serves as a barrier where the fire will run out of "fuel" to spread any further. However, many fire chiefs from Southern cities were firmly opposed to gunpowder created firebreaks after having seen the destruction they caused in the Civil War. Damrell returned to Boston and continued to request funding for improved water infrastructure and fire equipment.

Experts have deduced that the fire began in the basement of a warehouse on the corner of Kingston Street and Summer Street, at approximately 83–85 Summer Street. The fire spread through most of Boston's financial district which became known as the "burnt district." The glow of the fire was noted in ships' logs by sailors off the coast of Maine.

At 7:24 pm, the first alarm was received from Box 52 at the corner of Summer Street and Lincoln Street. The first fire engine to arrive was Engine Co. 7 from a station at 7 East Street. The first water on the fire came from Hose Company 2 of Hudson Street.

At the corner of Kingston and Summer Streets, a plaque was installed by The Bostonian Society to mark the start of the fire. Old South Meeting House recognized the 138th anniversary of the fire in 2010 by displaying a partially restored Kearsarge fire engine. Harvey W. Wiley took part in fighting the fire while he was a student at Harvard University. He later wrote about it in his autobiography. Author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. watched the fire from his home on Beacon Hill. He wrote a poem about the event called "After the Fire".