The Great Boston Fire

It was on this date, November 9, in 1872 that Boston, Massachusetts, suffered their worst ever fire and what is still one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history.
The fire destroyed the entire financial district, causingthe deployment of milita to guard against looting.

It all started at 7:20 pm in the basement of a warehouse on Summer St. A quirk in the city’s tax laws exempted business stock that was stored in attics. So, as the fire spread from flying embers, they were landing on top of rooms stuffed with fire load.

The conflagration grew rapidly and the huge fire lit up the entire New England sky, prompting fire departments from every state around to load up pumpers and firefighters on railroad trains and converge on the city to aid. The railroads capitalized on the event by also carrying spectators on the rescue trains.

The city’s fire department was already suffering from a horse flu epidemic that had traveled across the country that year. Every horse in the fire department had been immobilized from the illness and the heavy, steam pumpers had to be pulled by the firefighters to the blazes.

Further complicating the efforts, the gas supply lines connected to street lamps and used for lighting in buildings could not be shut off promptly. Gas lines exploded and fed the flames.
The fire was finally contained 12 hours later, but not until it had leveled 65 acres of downtown property including 776 buildings. The dollar loss, converted to today’s equivalency, exceeded $3.5 Billion.

The devastating effects of the fire directly led to the adoption of more stringent building codes and stronger enforcement efforts throughout the U. S.