and in 1796 there were 4,000 shops, mosques, magazines, etc., burned.

In 1776, six days after the British seized the city, a fire swept off
all the west side of New York city, from Broadway to the river.

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