2-791-380 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fire at Boston - from a drawing by Mr. W. Caister, 1844. The Boston Herald: '...the town of Boston [Massachusetts] was visited by a most awful conflagration, which broke out in the oil and colour warehouse of Mr. T. Slator, ship chandler and general dealer, in South-street, which spread with great rapidity, and involved a mass of valuable property in ruin. The six town engines were speedily on the spot; the tide was high, and no deficiency of water therefore existed, but all the engines were destitute of suction-pipes, excepting one, which was not of length sufficient to reach the water...Suddenly an explosion of gunpowder took place. The whole of the front of Mr. Slator’s house was blown out, some of the bricks being actually propelled across the river, and a mass of ruins and burning embers falling among the crowd. Mr. Duggan's granary...was now a mass of flame, and vast quantities of wheat and other grain burned to ashes. The total loss or property consumed, cannot be less than £10,000'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.