In 1771 a fire in Constantinople burned 2,500 houses; another in 1778 burned 2,000 houses; in 1782 there were 600 houses burned in February, 7,000 in June, and on August 12 during a conflagration that lasted three days, 10,000 houses, 50 mosques, and 100 corn-mills, with a loss of 100 lives. Two years later a fire, on March 13, destroyed two-thirds of Pera, the loveliest suburb of Constantinople, and on August 5 a fire in the main city, lasting twenty-six hours, burned 10,000 houses. In this same fire-scourged city, in 1791, between March and July, there were 32,000 houses burned, and about as many more in 1795; and in 1799 Pera was again swept with fire, with a loss of 13,000 houses, including many buildings of great magnificence.
In 1784 a fire and explosion in the dock yards, Brest, caused a loss of $5,000,000.
But the greatest destruction of life and property by conflagration, of which the world has anything like accurate records, must be looked for within the current century. Of these the following is a partial list of instances in which the loss of property amounted to $3,000,000 and upward:
| Dates— | Cities | Property destroyed. |
|---|---|---|
| 1802— | Liverpool | $5,000,000 |
| 1803— | Bombay | 3,000,600 |
| 1805— | St. Thomas | 30,000,000 |
| 1808— | Spanish Town | 7,500,000 |
| 1812— | Moscow, burned five days; 30,800 houses destroyed | 150,000,000 |
| 1816— | Constantinople, 12,000 dwellings, 3,000 shops | —— |
| 1820— | Savannah | 4,000,000 |
| 1822— | Canton nearly destroyed | —— |
| 1828— | Havana, 350 houses | —— |
| 1835— | New York ("Great Fire") | 15,000,000 |
| 1837— | St. Johns, N. B. | 5,000,000 |
| 1838— | Charleston, 1,158 buildings | 3,000,000 |
| 1841— | Smyrna, 12,000 houses | —— |
| 1842— | Hamburg, 4,219 buildings, 100 lives lost | 35,000,000 |
| 1845— | New York, 35 persons killed | 7,500,000 |
| 1845— | Pittsburgh, 1,100 buildings | 10,000,000 |
| 1845— | Quebec, May 28, 1,650 dwellings | 3,750,000 |
| 1845— | Quebec, June 28, 1,300 dwellings | —— |
| 1846— | St. Johns, Newfoundland | 5,000,000 |
| 1848— | Constantinople, 2,500 buildings | 15,000,000 |
| 1848— | Albany, N. Y., 600 houses | 3,000,000 |
| 1849— | St. Louis | 3,000,000 |
| 1851— | St. Louis, 2,500 buildings | 11,000,000 |
| 1851— | St. Louis, 500 buildings | 3,000,000 |
| 1851— | San Francisco, May 4 and 5, many lives lost | 10,000,000 |
| 1851— | San Francisco, June | 3,000,000 |
| 1852— | Montreal, 1,200 buildings | 5,000,000 |
| 1861— | Mendoza destroyed by earthquake and fire, 10,000 lives lost | —— |
| 1862— | St. Petersburg | 5,000,000 |
| 1802— | Troy, N. Y., nearly destroyed | —— |
| 1862— | Valparaiso almost destroyed | —— |
| 1864— | Novgorod, immense destruction of property | —— |
| 1865— | Constantinople, 2,800 buildings burned | —— |
| 1806— | Yokohama, nearly destroyed | —— |
| 1865— | Carlstadt, Sweden, all consumed but Bishop's residence, hospital and jail; 10 lives lost | —— |
| 1866— | Portland, Me., half the city | 11,000,000 |
| 1866— | Quebec, 2,500 dwellings, 17 churches | —— |
| 1870— | Constantinople, Pera, suburb | 26,000,000 |
| 1871— | Chicago—250 lives lost, 17,430 buildings burned, on 2,124 acres | 192,000,000 |
| 1871— | Paris, fired by the Commune | 160,000,000 |
| 1872— | Boston | 75,000.000 |
| 1873— | Yeddo, 10,000 houses | —— |
| 1877— | Pittsburgh, caused by riot | 3,260,000 |
| 1877— | St. Johns, N. B., 1,650 dwellings, 18 lives lost | 12,500,000 |
From the above it appears that the five greatest fires on record, reckoned by destruction of property, are:
| Chicago fire, of Oct. 8 and 9, 1871 | $192,000,000 |
| Paris fires, of May, 1871 | 160,000,000 |
| Moscow fire, of Sept. 14-19, 1812 | 150,000,000 |
| Boston fire, Nov. 9-10, 1872 | 75,000.000 |
| London fire, Sept. 2-6, 1666 | 53,652,500 |
| Hamburg fire, May 5-7, 1842 | 35,000,000 |
Taking into account, with the fires of Paris and Chicago, the great Wisconsin and Michigan forest fires of 1871, in which it is estimated that 1,000 human beings perished and property to the amount of over $3,000,000 was consumed, it is plain that in the annals of conflagrations that year stands forth in gloomy pre-eminence.
WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES PER CAPITA.—The following statistics represent the amount of taxable property, real and personal, in each State and Territory, and also the amount per capita:
| Total: | Per capita. | |
| Maine: | $235,978,716: | $362.09 |
| New Hampshire: | 164,755,181: | 474.81 |
| Vermont: | 86,806,755: | 261.24 |
| Massachusetts: | 1,584,756,802: | 888.77 |
| Rhode Island: | 252,536,673: | 913.23 |
| Connecticut: | 327,177,385: | 525.41 |
| New Jersey: | 572,518,361: | 506.06 |
| New York: | 2,651,940,000: | 521.74 |
| Pennsylvania: | 1,683,459,016: | 393.08 |
| Delaware: | 59,951,643: | 408.92 |
| Maryland: | 497,307,675: | 533.07 |
| District of Columbia: | 99,401,787: | 845.08 |
| Virginia: | 308,455,135: | 203.92 |
| West Virginia: | 139,622,705: | 225.75 |
| North Carolina: | 156,100,202: | 111.52 |
| South Carolina: | 153,560,135: | 154.24 |
| Georgia: | 239,472,599: | 155.82 |
| Florida: | 30,938,309: | 114.80 |
| Alabama: | 122,867,228: | 97.32 |
| Mississippi: | 110,628,129: | 97.76 |
| Louisiana: | 100,162,439: | 170.39 |
| Texas: | 320,364,515: | 201.26 |
| Arkansas: | 80,409,364: | 176.71 |
| Kentucky: | 350,563,971: | 212.63 |
| Tennessee: | 211,778,538: | 137.30 |
| Ohio: | 1,534,360,508: | 479.77 |
| Indiana: | 727,815,131: | 367.89 |
| Illinois: | 786,616,394: | 255.24 |
| Michigan: | 517,666,359: | 316.23 |
| Wisconsin: | 438,971,751: | 333.69 |
| Iowa: | 398,671,251: | 245.39 |
| Minnesota: | 258,028,687: | 330.48 |
| Missouri: | 432,795,801: | 245.72 |
| Kansas: | 160,891,689: | 161.52 |
| Nebraska: | 90,585,782: | 200.23 |
| Colorado: | 74,471,693: | 383.22 |
| Nevada: | 29,291,459: | 470.40 |
| Oregon: | 52,522,084: | 300.52 |
| California: | 584,578,036: | 676.05 |
| Arizona.: | 9,270,214: | 229.23 |
| Dakota: | 20,321,530: | 150.33 |
| Idaho: | 6,440,876: | 197.51 |
| Montana: | 18,609,802: | 475.23 |
| New Mexico: | 11,362,406: | 95.04 |
| Utah: | 24,775,279: | 172.09 |
| Washington: | 23,810,603: | 316.98 |
| Wyoming: | 13,621,829: | 655.24 |
| Total: | $16,902,993,543: | 337.00 |