| Lucifer-match makers | 30·00 | |
| Lodging-houses | 16·51 | |
| Hatmakers | 7·74 | |
| Chandlers | 3·88 | |
| Drapers | 2·67 | |
| Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths | 2·42 | |
| Carpenters | 2·27 | |
| Cabinet-makers | 2·12 | |
| Oil and Colour-men | 1·56 | |
| Beershops | 1·31 | |
| Booksellers | 1·18 | |
| Coffee-shops and Coffee-houses | 1·2 | |
| Cabinet-makers | 1·12 | |
| Licensed Victuallers | ·86 | |
| Bakers | ·75 | |
| Wine Merchants | ·61 | |
| Grocers | ·34 |
It will be seen that this estimate in a great measure inverts the order of “dangerous,” as we have ranged them in the previous table, making those which from their aggregate number seemed to be the most hazardous trades, appear the least so, and vice versâ. Thus lucifer-match makers have a bad pre-eminence; indeed they are supposed to be subject to a conflagration every third year; while the terrible victuallers, carpenters, mercers, and bakers, at the top of the column, shrink to the bottom of the list. These conclusions, nevertheless, are only an approximation to the truth, since it is impossible to procure a correct return of the houses occupied by different trades. Even if a certain class of tenements is particularly liable to fire, it does not follow that it will be held to be very hazardous to the insurers. Such considerations are influenced by another question,—Are the contents of houses forming the group, of that nature that, in cases of their taking fire, they are likely to be totally destroyed, seriously, or only slightly damaged? For instance, lodging-houses are very liable to fire; but they are very seldom burnt down or much injured. Out of 81 that suffered in 1853, not one was totally destroyed; only 4 were extensively affected; the very large majority, 77, were slightly scathed from the burning of window and bed curtains, &c. Among the trades which are too hazardous to be insured at any price are—we quote from the tariff of the County Fire-office—floor-cloth manufacturers, gunpowder dealers, hatters’ “stock in the stove,” lampblack makers, lucifer-match makers, varnish makers, and wadding manufacturers; whilst the following are considered highly hazardous;—bone-crushers, coffee-roasters, composition-ornament makers, curriers, dyers, feather-stovers, flambeau makers, heckling-houses, hemp and flax dressers, ivory-black makers, japanners and japan makers, laboratory-chemists, patent japan-leather manufacturers, lint-mills, rough-fat melters, musical-instrument makers, oil and colour men, leather dressers, oiled-silk and linen makers, oil of vitriol manufacturers, pitch makers, rag dealers, resin dealers, saw-mills, seed crushers, ship-buiscuit bakers, soap makers, spermaceti and wax refiners, sugar refiners, tar dealers and boilers, thatched houses in towns, and turpentine makers.
The great mass of these trades bear “hazardous” upon the very face of them; but it is not equally apparent why that of a hatter should be so very dangerous, and particular portions of his stock uninsurable. We are given to understand that the stoves at which their manufacture is carried on, and the shell-lac and willow, are the causes of this proneness to conflagrations. The memorable fire at Fenning’s Wharf, which burnt with a fury to which that at the Royal Exchange and at the Houses of Parliament was a mere bonfire, originated at a hatter’s on London Bridge, from which place it speedily spread to Alderman Humphery’s warehouses in the rear, leaped across Tooley Street—at this spot 60 feet wide—and thus invaded the great river-side wharf. The two floating-engines belonging to the brigade were brought into service on the occasion, and although they threw between them fourteen hundred gallons of water a minute to the height of a hundred feet, they had not the slightest effect upon the burning mass.
Nothing shows better the relative degrees of hazard than the different rates charged for insurance. Thus an ordinary dwelling-house pays but 1s. 6d. per cent., while a sugar-refinery pays at least two, and sometimes three guineas per cent., or from 30 to 40 times as much. The same class of houses pay different rates according to their locality. The residence which is charged 1s. 6d. in London, is, in St. John’s, Newfoundland—a town famous, or rather infamous, for fires—charged by our English offices 1l. 11s. 6d. per cent. Probably the heaviest loss the Phœnix Office ever sustained was by the fire of St. John’s, in 1846.
It is a notable fact, that the city of London, which is perhaps the most densely inhabited spot the world has ever seen, has long been exempt from conflagrations involving a considerable number of houses. “The devouring element,” it is true, has made many meals from time to time of huge warehouses and public buildings; but since the great fire of 1666 it has ceased to gorge upon whole quarters of the town. We have never had, since that memorable occasion, to record the destruction of a thousand houses at a time, a matter of frequent occurrence in the United States and Canada—indeed in all parts of Continental Europe. The fires which have proved fatal to large plots of buildings in the metropolis have in every instance taken place without the sound of Bow bells. A comparison between the number of fires which occurred between the years 1838 and 1843, in 20,000 houses situate on either side of the Thames, shows at once the superior safety of its northern bank, the annual average of fires on the latter being only 20 against 36 on the southern side. For this exemption we have to thank the great disaster, if we might so term what has turned out a blessing. At one fell swoop it cleared the city, and swept away for ever the dangerous congregation of wooden buildings and narrow streets which were always affording material for the flame.
Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his “Handbook of London,”[43] gives the following curious information respecting its supposed origin:—
“The fire of London, commonly called the Great Fire, commenced on the east side of this lane (Pudding-lane) about one or two in the morning of Sunday, September 2nd, 1666, in the house of Farryner, the king’s baker.
“It was the fashion of the true blue Protestants of the period to attribute the fire to the Roman Catholics; and when, in 1681, Oates and his plot strengthened this belief, the following inscription was affixed on the front of this house (No. 25, I believe), erected on the site of Farryner, the baker’s:—
“‘Here, by the permission of Heaven, hell broke loose upon this Protestant city, from the malicious hearts of barbarous priests, by the hand of their agent, Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of this place declared the fact for which he was hanged, viz., that here began that dreadful fire which is described on and perpetuated by the neighbouring pillar, erected anno 1681, in the mayoralty of Sir Peter Ward, knight.’
“This celebrated inscription, set up pursuant to an order of the Court of Common Council, June 17th, 1681, was removed in the reign of James II., replaced in the reign of William III., and finally taken down ‘on account of the stoppage of passengers to read it.’ Entick, who makes addition to Maitland in 1756, speaks of it ‘as lately taken away.’ The house was ‘rebuilt in a very handsome manner.’