Friday, January the 16th, 2004

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Fire!

In May 1855, The Eclectic Magazine (London, I think) published the following:

The origin of fires is now so narrowly inquired into by the officers of the Brigade, by means of inquests, that we have been made acquainted with a vast number of curious causes, which would never have been suspected. From an analysis of fires which have occurred since the establishment of the Brigade, we have constructed the following [list]:

Curtains 2,511—Candle 1,178—Flues 1,555—Stoves 494—Gas 932—Light dropped down Area 13—Lighted Tobacco falling down ditto 7—Dust falling on horizontal Flue 1—Doubtful 76—Incendiarism 89—Carelessness 100—Intoxication 80—Dog 6—Cat 19—Hunting Bugs 15—Clotheshorse upset by Monkey 1—Lucifers 80—Children playing with ditto 45—Rat gnawing ditto 1—Jackdaw playing with ditto 1—Rat gnawing gaspipe 1—Boys letting off Fireworks 14—Fireworks going off 63—Children playing with Fire 45—Spark from Fire 243—Spark from Railway 4—Smoking Tobacco 166—Smoking Ants 1—Smoking in Bed 2—Reading in ditto 22—Sewing in ditto 4—Sewing by Candle 1—Lime overheating 44—Waste ditto 43—Cargo of Lime ditto 2—Rain Slacking ditto 5—High Tide 1—Explosion 6—Spontaneous Combustion 43—Heat from Sun 8—Lightning 8—Carboy of Acid bursting 2—Drying Linen 1 -Shirts falling into fire 6—Lighting and Upsetting Naphtha Lamp 58—Fire from Iron Kettle 1—Sealing Letter 1—Charcoal Fire of a Suicide 1—Insanity 5—Bleaching Nuts 7—Unknown 1,323

NB : Glyn Webster writes (17th January) to comment “It's a good thing we don't need those hazardous dittos any more. I would write more, but my monkey has been upset by a clotheshorse.”