The Burning of Chelsea by Walter Merriam Pratt

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.

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.