Chapter II: Statistics of the Fire

Few people realize the size of the Chelsea fire from the newspaper accounts. In no cases were they exaggerated, while accounts in the New York and Western papers invariably underestimated the size of the burned district. On the authority of the “Fireman’s Herald” of New York it was the third largest fire in point of area in the history of this country. The San Francisco fire burned over twenty-seven hundred acres, the Chicago fire twenty-one hundred and twenty-four acres, the Chelsea fire four hundred and ninety-two acres, and the Portland, Me., fire four hundred acres. The great Boston conflagration of 1872 covered only sixty-five acres.

The Chelsea fire swept the center of the city, covering a space a mile and a half long and three quarters of a mile wide. It destroyed practically all the business section, most of the municipal buildings, and twenty-eight hundred and twenty-two other buildings, making seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty people homeless.

It burned thirteen churches, eight schools, twenty-three oil tanks, the City Hall, the Frost Hospital, the Board of Health building, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the United States Post-office, four newspaper plants, the Masonic Temple, three fine bank buildings, two fire stations, and over three thousand shade trees, and ruined miles of granite curbing. There were over seven hundred business firms and professional men burned out. They included fifty grocery stores, twenty-nine barber shops, twenty-eight doctors, twenty-eight tailors and dressmakers, twenty-one real estate offices, seventeen insurance offices, thirteen apothecaries, and twelve bakers.

COPYRIGHT, JUDGE CO., 1908

THE LYNN ENGINE DESTROYED BY THE FLAMES]

The fire spread so rapidly that three engines were caught in its path and destroyed, one from Lynn and two from Boston. A peculiar coincidence is that one of the Boston engines was “Big 15,” bearing the same number as the engine which in 1834 came across the river and helped Chelsea put out its first fire. The insurance loss was $8,846,879, according to the figures given in the speech of President Burchell at the annual convention of the underwriters, on May 14, 1908. The taxable value of the property destroyed is estimated as $12,450,000 and other personal property brought the loss close to $20,000,000.

The insurance loss was well divided, although the various companies located in Hartford, Conn., lost in the vicinity of $1,000,000. The Royal of England was the heaviest single loser, with a loss roughly estimated at $500,000. The Phœnix and Hartford Home offices came next, with losses figured at $250,000 each. The losses in addition to those mentioned above were as follows:--

Ætna, Hartford $165,000
American, New Jersey 60,000
American Central, St. Louis 200,000
American Lloyds, New York 4,000
Agricultural, New York 60,000
Alliance, London 35,000
Alliance, Pennsylvania 2,500
Albany, New York 7,500
Ben Franklin, Pennsylvania 5,500
Boston 90,000
Buffalo-German, New York 15,000
Cambridge Mutual 30,000
Caledonian, Scotland 50,000
Capital, New Hampshire 10,000
Camden, New Jersey 15,000
Citizens, Missouri 27,000
Colonial, New York 20,000
Concordia, Wisconsin 32,500
Connecticut 50,000
County, Pennsylvania 13,000
Delaware 35,000
Dixie, North Carolina 8,000
Dutchess, New York 6,000
Eastern, New York 4,000
Empire City, New York 5,000
Fire Association, Pennsylvania 80,000
Firemen’s, New Jersey 60,000
German-Alliance, New York 30,000
Girard, Pennsylvania 12,000
Granite State, New Hampshire 15,000
Hanover, New York 175,000
Hamburg Bremen, Germany 40,000
Holyoke Mutual, Holyoke 150,000
India Mutual, Boston 2,500
Insurance Co. of North America, Pennsylvania 185,000
Jefferson, Pennsylvania 35,000
Law Union and Crown, England 1,000
Liverpool & London & Globe 100,000
London & Lancashire Co 94,700
London Assurance Corporation 85,000
Mechanics, Pennsylvania 3,000
Mercantile Fire and Marine 15,000
Merchants & Farmers Mutual 30,000
Middlesex Mutual, Concord 60,000
Milwaukee Mechanics, Wisconsin 12,000
Nassau, New York $15,000
National, Connecticut 60,000
National, Allegheny 4,000
National, Pennsylvania 2,000
National Union, Pennsylvania 83,000
New Brunswick, New Jersey 10,000
New York Underwriters 25,000
Niagara, New York 115,000
North River, New York 65,000
North British, New York 10,000
Norwich Union, England 300,000
Old Colony, Boston 5,000
Orient, Connecticut 95,750
Palatine, London 95,000
Pennsylvania 96,000
Phenix, New York 200,000
Philadelphia Underwriters 35,000
Providence-Washington, Rhode Island 30,000
Queen, New York 95,000
Richmond, New York 1,600
Royal Exchange, England 35,000
Scottish Union and National 50,000
Security, New York 20,000
Southern, Louisiana 5,000
St. Paul Fire and Marine, Minnesota $12,000
Spring Garden, Pennsylvania 50,000
State, Pennsylvania 7,000
Sun, London 125,000
Svea, Sweden 25,000
Union, Pennsylvania 25,000
Western, Pennsylvania 10,000

A relief fund was raised through Messrs. Lee, Higginson & Company of Boston, amounting at this writing to over $350,000. The contributions to this fund were almost entirely from citizens of Massachusetts, as outside help was not asked for. They came from all classes of the community, and were sent in with the spontaneity and promptness with which the people of Massachusetts always respond to an appeal for merited aid.

The fire traveled more rapidly than any other of the large fires. It reached its most distant point inside of five hours, and inside of ten hours all of the buildings burned were totally destroyed. How many persons lost their lives in the fire will probably never be known. Eighteen bodies were recovered, and it is safe to estimate that as many more were entirely burned. Over three hundred injured were treated at the United States Naval, United States Marine, and the Massachusetts Soldiers’ Home hospitals.

The Metropolitan Water Commission records show that forty million gallons of water were used in Chelsea on April 12, instead of an average consumption of 3,000,583, the cost of extinguishing the fire in water alone being $1600.