Enviroment

A fire in New York's Fulton, Nassau, and Ann streets August 12 kills five people and destroys 35 houses; a much worse fire breaks out December 16, and although organized bucket brigades help fire chief James "Handsome Jim" Gulick and his men keep the flames from spreading north of Wall Street, the fire rages out of control in the commercial, pier, and warehouse area of Wall, Broad, and South streets, destroying a marble statue of Alexander Hamilton. Turpentine inside warehouses along the East River is ignited, the river itself becomes a blazing sea, and debris is blown over Brooklyn. Manhattan's Dutch Riverside Church catches fire and burns down while an organist inside plays a funeral dirge until he is consumed by the flames. Mobs come down from the Five Points to loot, and a man caught setting fire to a house at the corner of Stone and Broad streets is lynched from a tree. Rioters fight over French hats, Manchester woollens, and baskets of champagne, but one merchant saves his goods by stopping the driver of a horse cart and paying the man $500 to haul away the contents of his store. The conflagration is visible for miles, volunteer firefighters arrive by ferry from Brooklyn, Newark, and Jersey City. Some 400 come from Philadelphia. The mercury plunges to 17°, pumping engines freeze, water freezes in the leather hoses, and some of the 1,900 firemen, although covered with ice, are singed while others nearby suffer frostbite. The fire continues well into the next day, destroying the Merchants' Exchange, and explosives are finally used to create fire stops. The fire levels 13 acres in the heart of the city's commercial and financial district, destroys 674 buildings, many of them in Hanover and Pearl Streets, causes damage estimated at between $20 million and $40 million (see insurance companies, 1836), and leaves many hundreds of people homeless. Lack of water pressure with which to fight the flames is blamed for much of the damage (see Croton aqueduct, 1837).