The Portland Fire

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 24, 1866

The Portland Fire.

THE past two years have been marked by a greater number of serious conflagrations in every part of the country than had ever been known before. Scarce a town of any considerable size has escaped, but none has suffered so tremendously as the beautiful city of Portland, the second maritime town of New England. More than one-half of its buildings were destroyed on the 4th inst., and these were among its most valuable and beautiful. Among them were five churches, its new and beautiful city hall, all its bank and newspaper offices, its manufactories and stores, and its great hotels. The loss is said to exceed in value ten millions of dollars; but there are always losses in such cases which cannot be estimated at a money computation. This tremendous conflagration, which is the only one occurring in this country which can be named in comparison with our "great fire" of 1835, was caused by a careless boy throwing a fire-cracker into a pile of shavings.