Of the Fires of London.

Connected with the subject of chimney sweeping is one which attracts far less of the attention of the legislature and the public than its importance would seem to demand: I mean the fires in the metropolis, with their long train of calamities, such as the loss of life and of property. These calamities, too, especially as regards the loss of property, are almost all endured by the poor, the destruction of whose furniture is often the destruction of their whole property, as insurances are rarely effected by them; while the wealthier classes, in the case of fires, are not exposed to the evils of houselessness, and may be actually gainers by the conflagration, through the sum for which the property was insured.

“The daily occurrence of fires in the metropolis,” say the Board of Health, “their extent, the number of persons who perish by them, the enormous loss of property they occasion, the prevalence of incendiarism, the apparent apathy with which such calamities are regarded, and the rapidity with which they are forgotten, will hereafter be referred to as evidence of a very low social condition and defective administrative organization. These fires, it was shown nearly a century ago, when the subject of insurance was debated in Parliament, were frequently caused from not having chimneys swept in proper time.” I am informed that a chimney may be on fire for many days, unknown to the inmates of the house, and finally break out in the body of the building by its getting into contact with some beam or wood-work. The recent burning of Limehouse Church was occasioned by the soot collected in the flue taking fire, and becoming red hot, when it ignited the wood-work in the roof. The flue, or pipe, was of iron.

From a return made by Mr. Braidwood of the houses and properties destroyed in the metropolis in the three years ending in 1849 inclusive, it appears that the total number was 1111: of contents destroyed (which, being generally insured separately, should be kept distinct) there were 1013. The subjoined table gives the particulars as to the proportion insured and uninsured:—

	Insured.	Uninsured.	Total.
Houses	914	197	1111
Contents	609	404	1013
	1523	601	2124

“The proportion per cent. of the uninsured to the insured, would be—

		Insured.	Uninsured.	Total.
		Per Cent.	Per Cent.
Houses	1111	82·3	17·7	100
Contents	1013	60·1	39·9	100
	2124	71·7	28·3	100

The following table gives the total number of fires in the metropolis during a series of years:

ABSTRACT OF CAUSES OF FIRE IN THE METROPOLIS, from 1833 to 1849, inclusive.

Compiled by W. Baddeley.

	1833	1834	1835	1836	1837	1838	1839
Accidents of various kinds, for the most part unavoidable	83	40	14	13	17	36	25
Apparel ignited on the person	..	..	..	7	7	5	3
Candles, various accidents with	56	146	110	157	125	132	128
Carelessness, palpable instances of	28	..	19	18	7	17	14
Children playing with fire or candles	..	..	5	6	18	5	12
Drunkenness	..	2	3	..	2	4	6
Fire-heat, application of, to various hazardous manufacturing processes	31	24	39	34	22	40	26
Fire-sparks	..	..	..	7	10	12	9
Fire-works	..	..	3	..	5	3	5
Fires kindled on hearths and other improper places	7	..	9	5	5	15	8
Flues, foul, defective, &c.	71	65	69	72	53	58	58
Fumigation, incautious	..	3	7	5	2	1	5
Furnaces, kilns, &c., defective or over-heated	..	11	2	9	12	15	20
Gas	20	25	39	38	31	42	72
Gunpowder	3	3	..	1	3	1	2
Hearths, defective, &c.	..	..	..	..	..	..	..
Hot cinders put away	..	..	..	..	..	..	..
Lamps	..	..	..	2	3	9	4
Lime, slaking of	..	3	4	3	..	4	2
Linen, drying, airing, &c.	..	..	22	31	48	32	26
Lucifer-matches	..	..	..	..	8	9	17
Ovens	6	..	..	6	3	11	4
Reading, working, or smoking in bed	..	3	..	..	..	1	2
Shavings, loose, ignited	..	6	9	13	8	17	8
Spontaneous combustion	7	2	5	4	4	5	13
Stoves, defective, over-heated, &c.	18	20	11	28	36	31	24
Tobacco smoking	..	6	4	1	3	4	11
Suspicious	..	..	..	..	7	8	6
Wilful	3	9	6	8	5	6	7
Unknown	125	114	91	96	57	45	67

	1840	1841	1842	1843	1844	1845	1846
Accidents of various kinds, for the most part unavoidable	26	26	44	19	11	17	29
Apparel ignited on the person	12	5	9	5	4	3	3
Candles, various accidents with	169	184	189	166	205	165	229
Carelessness, palpable instances of	24	25	19	27	15	14	15
Children playing with fire or candles	21	18	16	20	23	19	25
Drunkenness	5	5	11	6	9	7	9
Fire-heat, application of, to various hazardous manufacturing processes	29	16	36	14	21	22	25
Fire-sparks	17	13	23	17	27	24	32
Fire-works	1	4	7	5	3	10	9
Fires kindled on hearths and other improper places	7	8	9	9	8	12	7
Flues, foul, defective, &c.	89	83	90	105	84	78	86
Fumigation, incautious	3	2	2	1	1	3	4
Furnaces, kilns, &c., defective or over-heated	15	12	23	19	17	29	28
Gas	48	48	52	40	33	54	53
Gunpowder	..	..	3	1	..	1	..
Hearths, defective, &c.	..	..	3	5	2	..	4
Hot cinders put away	..	..	3	3	7	10	8
Lamps	3	5	2	2	6	11	7
Lime, slaking of	2	5	4	2	3	9	7
Linen, drying, airing, &c.	25	27	41	33	45	30	39
Lucifer-matches	18	16	17	14	19	12	14
Ovens	13	13	13	10	10	8	8
Reading, working, or smoking in bed	..	5	2	3	..	..	3
Shavings, loose, ignited	27	35	22	31	18	25	35
Spontaneous combustion	11	22	20	23	34	19	18
Stoves, defective, over-heated, &c.	48	54	32	58	44	51	43
Tobacco smoking	9	22	17	14	21	19	29
Suspicious	11	7	9	16	7	9	7
Wilful	9	13	19	21	11	14	19
Unknown	39	23	32	60	74	32	39

	1847	1848	1849	Total.	Average
Accidents of various kinds, for the most part unavoidable	20	19	13	452	27
Apparel ignited on the person	3	1	2	69	4
Candles, various accidents with	237	237	241	2876	169
Carelessness, palpable instances of	20	23	24	309	18
Children playing with fire or candles	16	19	15	238	14
Drunkenness	5	3	7	84	5
Fire-heat, application of, to various hazardous manufacturing processes	16	22	23	440	26
Fire-sparks	65	63	40	359	21
Fire-works	6	1	8	70	4
Fires kindled on hearths and other improper places	3	4	4	120	7
Flues, foul, defective, &c.	78	56	78	1273	75
Fumigation, incautious	4	4	2	49	3
Furnaces, kilns, &c., defective or over-heated	14	16	21	263	16
Gas	63	65	57	780	46
Gunpowder	2	..	2	22	1⅕
Hearths, defective, &c.	3	4	3	24	1½
Hot cinders put away	9	5	11	56	3
Lamps	2	3	17	76	5
Lime, slaking of	5	5	3	61	4
Linen, drying, airing, &c.	34	36	40	509	30
Lucifer-matches	9	23	12	188	11
Ovens	8	2	2	117	7
Reading, working, or smoking in bed	1	1	1	22	1⅓
Shavings, loose, ignited	37	27	21	339	20
Spontaneous combustion	15	7	19	228	13
Stoves, defective, over-heated, &c.	37	48	43	626	37
Tobacco smoking	18	37	24	239	14
Suspicious	17	11	10	125	7
Wilful	17	25	19	211	12
Unknown	72	38	76	1080	63

Here, then, we perceive that there are, upon an average of 17 years, no less than 770 “fires” per annum, that is to say, 29 houses in every 10,000 are discovered to be on fire every year; and about one-fourth of these are uninsured. In the year 1833 the total number of fires was only 458, or 20 in every 10,000 inhabited houses, whilst, in 1849, the number had gradually progressed to 838, or 28 in every 10,000 houses.

We have here, however, to deal more particularly with the causes of these fires, of which the following table gives the result of many years’ valuable experience:—

TABULAR EPITOME OF METROPOLITAN FIRES, FROM 1833 to 1849.

By W. Baddeley, 29, Alfred Street, Islington.

	1833	1834	1835	1836	1837	1838	1839	1840	1841	1842	1843
Slightly damaged	292	338	315	397	357	383	402	451	438	521	489
Seriously damaged	135	116	125	134	122	152	165	204	34	224	231
Totally destroyed	31	28	31	33	22	33	17	26	24	24	29
Total No. of Fires	458	482	471	564	501	568	584	681	696	769	749
False Alarms	59	63	66	66	89	80	70	84	67	61	79
Alarms from Chimneys on Fire	75	106	106	126	127	107	101	98	92	82	83
Total No. of Calls	592	651	643	756	717	755	755	863	855	912	911
Insuran. on Building and Contents	..	..	..	169	173	161	169	237	343	321	276
Insurances on Building only	..	..	..	73	47	59	58	92	149	116	124
Insurances on Contents only	..	..	..	104	76	128	115	104	52	112	107
Uninsured	..	..	..	218	205	220	242	248	152	220	242

	1844	1845	1846	1847	1848	1849	Total.	Average
Slightly damaged	502	431	576	536	509	582	6,574	470
Seriously damaged	237	244	238	273	269	228	2,955	211
Totally destroyed	23	32	20	27	27	28	365	26
Total No. of Fires	762	707	834	836	805	838	9,894	770
False Alarms	70	81	119	88	120	76	1,150	82
Alarms from Chimneys on Fire	94	87	69	66	86	89	1,307	94
Total No. of Calls	926	875	1022	990	1011	1003	12,351	882
Insuran. on Building and Contents	313	313	302	263	310	368	3,718	266
Insurances on Building only	138	107	137	125	120	163	1,508	108
Insurances on Contents only	94	73	125	157	134	72	1,453	104
Uninsured	217	214	270	291	241	235	3,215	230

Thus we perceive that, out of an average of 665 fires per annum, the information being derived from 17 years’ experience, the following were the number of fires produced by different causes:—

	Average No. of Fires per Annum.
Candles, various accidents with	169
Flues, foul, defective, &c.	75
Unknown	63
Gas	46
Stoves over-heated	37
Linen, drying, airing, &c.	30
Accidents of various kinds, for the most part unavoidable	27
Fire heat, application of, to various hazardous manufacturing processes	26
Fire sparks	21
Shavings, loose, ignited	20
Carelessness, palpable instances of	18
Furnaces, kilns, &c., defective or over-heated	16
Children playing with fire or candles	14
Tobacco smoking	14
Spontaneous combustion	13
Wilful	12
Lucifer-matches	11
Ovens	7
Fires, kindled on hearths and other improper places	7
Suspicious	7
Lamps	5
Drunkenness	5
Lime, slaking of	4
Apparel, ignited on the person	4
Fireworks	4
Hot cinders put away	3
Incautious fumigation	3
Reading, working, or smoking in bed	1·33
Hearths defective	1·25
	665

Here, then, we find that while the greatest proportion of fires are caused by accidents with candles, about one-ninth of the fires above mentioned arise from foul flues, or 75 out of 665, a circumstance which teaches us the usefulness of the class of labourers of whom we have been lately treating.

It would seem that a much larger proportion of the fires are wilfully produced than appear in the above table.

The Board of Health, in speaking of incendiarism in connection with insurance, report:—

“Inquiries connected with measures for the improvement of the population have developed the operation of insurances, in engendering crimes and calamities; negatively, by weakening natural responsibilities and motives to care and forethought; positively, by temptations held out to the commission of crime in the facility with which insurance money is usually obtainable.

“The steady increase in the number of fires in the metropolis, whilst our advance in the arts gives means for their diminution, is ascribable mainly to the operation of these two causes, and to the division and weakening of administrative authority. From information on which we can rely, we feel assured that the crime of incendiarism for the sake of insurance money exists to a far greater extent than the public are aware of.”

Mr. Braidwood has expressed his opinion that only one-half of the property in the metropolis is insured, not as to numbers of property, but as to value; but the proportion of insured and uninsured houses could not be ascertained.

Mr. Baddeley, the inspector to the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, who had given attention to the subject for the last 30 years, gave the Board the following account of the increase of fires:—

	Fires per Annum of Houses and Properties.	Of which were Totally Uninsured.	Proportion per Cent. of Insured Houses and Properties Burnt.
In the first seven years there were on an average	623	215	65·15
In the second seven years	790	244	69·3

During this period there has been a great increase in the number of dwellings, but this has been chiefly in suburban places, where fires rarely occur.

“The frequency of fires,” it is further stated, “led Mr. Payne, the coroner of the City of London, to revive the exercise of the coroner’s function of inquiring into the causes of fires; most usefully. Out of 58 inquests held by him (in the City of London and the borough of Southwark, which comprise only one-eighteenth of the houses of the metropolis) since 1845, it appears that, 8 were proved to be wilful; 27 apparently accidental; and 23 from causes unknown, including suspicious causes. The proportion of ascertained wilful fires was, therefore, 23 per cent.; which gives strong confirmation to the indications presented by the statistical returns as to the excess of insured property burnt above uninsured.”

The at once mean and reckless criminality of arson, by which a man exposes his neighbours to the risk of a dreadful death, which he himself takes measures to avoid, has long, and on many occasions, gone unpunished in London. The insurance companies, when a demand is made upon them for a loss through fire, institute an inquiry, carried on quietly by their own people. The claimant is informed, if sufficient reasons for such a step appear, that from suspicious circumstances, which had come to the knowledge of the company, the demand would not be complied with, and that the company would resist any action for the recovery of the money. The criminal becomes alarmed, he is afraid of committing himself, and so the matter drops, and the insurance companies, not being required to pay the indemnification, are satisfied to save their money, and let the incendiarism remain unnoticed or unpunished. Mr. Payne, the coroner, has on some occasions strongly commented on this practice as one which showed the want of a public prosecutor.

A few words as regards the means of extinction and help at fires.

Upwards of two years ago the Commissioners of Police instructed their officers to note the time which elapsed between the earliest alarm of fire and the arrival of the first engine. Seventeen fires were noted, and the average duration of time before the fire-brigade or any parochial or local fire-engine, reached the spot, was 36 minutes. Two or three of these fires were in the suburbs; so that in this crowded city, so densely packed with houses and people, fifteen fires raged unchecked for more than half-an-hour.

There are in the metropolis, not including the more distant suburbs, 150 public fire stations, with engines provided under the management of the parochial authorities. The fire-brigade has but seventeen stations on land, and two on the river, which are, indeed, floating engines, one being usually moored near Southwark-bridge, the other having no stated place, being changed in its locality, as may be considered best. In the course of three years, the term of the official inquiry, the engines of the fire-brigade reached on the average the place where a fire was raging thirty-five times as the earliest means of assistance, when the parochial engines did the same only in the proportion of two to the thirty-five.

Mr. Braidwood, the director of the fire-brigade, stated, when questioned on the subject with a view to a report to be laid before Parliament, that “the average time of an engine turning out with horses was from three to seven minutes.” The engines are driven at the rate of ten miles an hour along the streets, which, in the old coaching days, was considered the “best royal mail pace.” Indeed, there have been frequent complaints of the rapidity with which the fire-engines are driven, and if the drivers were not skilful and alert, it would really amount to recklessness.

“Information of the breaking out of a fire,” it is stated in the report, “will be conveyed to the station of the brigade at the rate of about five miles an hour: thus in the case of the occurrence of a fire within a mile of the station, the intelligence may be conveyed to the station in about twelve minutes; the horses will be put to, and the engine got out into the street in about five minutes on the average; it traverses the mile in about six minutes; and the water has to be got into the engine, which will occupy about five minutes, making, under the most favourable circumstances for such a distance, 28 minutes, or for a half-mile distance, an average of not less than 20 minutes.”

The average distance of the occurring fires from a brigade station were, however, during a period of three years, terminating in 1850, upwards of a mile. One was five miles, several four miles, more were two miles, and a mile and a half, while the most destructive fires were at an average distance of a mile and three quarters. Thus it was impossible for a fire-brigade to give assistance as soon as assistance was needed, and, under other circumstances, might have been rendered. And all this damage may and does very often result from what seems so trifling a neglect as the non-sweeping of a chimney.

Mr. W. Baddeley, an engineer, and a high authority on this subject, has stated that he had attended fires for 30 years in London, and that, of 838 fires which took place in 1849, two-thirds might have been easily extinguished had there been an immediate application of water. In some places, he said, delay originated from the turn-cocks being at wide intervals, and some of the companies objecting to let any but their own servants have the command of the main-cocks.

The Board of Health have recommended the formation of a series of street-water plugs within short distances of each other, the water to be constantly on at high pressure night and day, and the whole to be under the charge of a trained body of men such as compose the present fire-brigade, provided at appointed stations with every necessary appliance in the way of hose, pipes, ladders, &c. “The hose should be within the reach,” it is urged in the report, “fixed, and applied on an average of not more than five minutes from the time of the alarm being given; that is to say, in less than one-fourth of the time within which fire-engines are brought to bear under existing arrangements, and with a still greater proportionate diminution of risks and serious accidents.”

Nor is this mode of extinguishing fires a mere experiment. It is successfully practised in some of the American cities, Philadelphia among the number, and in some of our own manufacturing towns. Mr. Emmott, the engineer and manager of the Oldham Water-works, has described the practice in that town on the occurrence of fires:—

“In five cases out of six, the hose is pushed into a water-plug, and the water thrown upon a building on fire, for the average pressure of water in this town is 146 feet; by this means our fires are generally extinguished even before the heavy engine arrives at the spot. The hose is much preferred to the engine, on account of the speed with which it is applied, and the readiness with which it is used, for one man can manage a hose, and throw as much water on the building on fire as an engine worked by many men. On this account we very rarely indeed use the engines, as they possess no advantage whatever over the hose.”

When the city of Hamburgh was rebuilt two or three years back, after its destruction by fire, it was rebuilt chiefly under the direction of Mr. W. Lindley, the engineer, and, as far as Mr. Lindley could accomplish, on sanitary principles, such as the abolition of cesspools. The arrangements for the surface cleansing of the streets by means of the hose and jet and the water-plugs, are made available for the extinction of fires, and with the following results, as communicated by Mr. Lindley:—

“Have there been fires in buildings in Hamburgh in the portion of the town rebuilt?—Yes, repeatedly. They have all, however, been put out at once. If they had had to wait the usual time for engines and water, say 20 minutes or half an hour, these might all have led to extensive conflagrations.

“What has been the effect on insurance?—The effect of the rapid extinction of fires has brought to light to the citizens of Hamburgh, the fact that the greater proportion of their fires are the work of incendiaries, for the sake of the insurance money. A person is absent; smoke is seen to exude; the alarm of fire is given, and the door is forced open, the jet applied, and the fire extinguished immediately. Case after case has occurred, where, upon the fire being extinguished, the arrangements for the spread of the fire are found and made manifest. Several of this class of incendiaries for the insurance money are now in prison. The saving of money alone, by the prevention of fires, would be worth the whole expense of the like arrangement in London, where it is well known that similar practices prevail extensively.”

The following statement was given by Mr. Quick, an engineer, on this subject:—

“After the destruction of the terminus of the South Western Railway by fire, I recommended them to have a 9-inch main, with 3-inch outlets leading to six stand-pipes, with joining screws for hose-pipes to be attached, and that they should carry a 3-inch pipe of the same description up into each floor, so that a hose might be attached in any room where the fire commenced.

“In how many minutes may the hose be attached?—There is only the time of attaching the hose, which need be nothing like a minute. I have indeed recommended that a short length of hose with a short nozzle or branch should be kept attached to the cock, so that the cock has only to be turned, which is done in an instant.

“It appears that fire-engines require 26 men to work each engine of two 7 inch barrels, to produce a jet of about 50 feet high. The arrangement carried out, at your recommendation, with six jets, is equivalent to keeping six such engines, and the power of 156 men, in readiness to act at all times, night and day, at about a minute’s notice, for the extinction of fires?—It will give a power more than equal to that number of men; for the jets given off from a 20-inch main will be much more regular and powerful, and will deliver more water than could be delivered by any engine. The jets at that place would be 70 feet high.”

The system of roof-cisterns, which was at one time popular as a means of extinction, has been found, it appears, on account of their leakage and diffusion of damp, to be but sorry contrivances, and have very generally been discontinued. Mr. Holme, a builder in Liverpool, gives the following, even under the circumstances, amusing account of a fire where such a cistern was provided:—

“The owner of a cotton kiln, which had been repeatedly burnt, took it into his head to erect a large tank in the roof. His idea was, that when a fire occurred, they should have water at hand; and when the fire ascended, it would burn the wooden tank, and the whole of the contents being discharged on the fire like a cataract, it would at once extinguish it. Well, the kiln again took fire; the smoke was so suffocating, that nobody could get at the internal pipe, and the whole building was again destroyed. But what became of the tank? It could not burn, because it was filled with water; consequently, it boiled most admirably. No hole was singed in its side or bottom; it looked very picturesque, but it was utterly useless.”

The necessity of almost immediate help is shown in the following statement by Mr. Braidwood, when consulted on the subject of fire-escapes, which under the present system are not considered sufficiently effective:—

“Taking London to be six miles long and three miles broad, to have anything like an efficient system of fire-escapes, it would be necessary to have one with a man to attend it within a quarter of a mile of each house, as assistance, to be of any use, must generally be rendered within five minutes after the alarm is given. To do this the stations must be within a quarter of a mile of each other (as the escapes must be taken round the angles of the streets): 253 stations would thus be required and as many men.

“At present scaling ladders are kept at all the engine stations, and canvas sheets also at some of them; several lives have been saved by them; but the distance of the stations from each other renders them applicable only in a limited number of instances.”

The engines of the fire-brigade throw up about 90 gallons a minute. Their number is about 100. The cost of a fire-engine is from 60l. to 100l., and the hose, buckets, and general apparatus, cost nearly the same amount.