3-008-570 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Enschede, Holland: distribution of blankets to the houseless - from a sketch by our special artist, 1862. '...a labouring man had expressed to some of his comrades his disgust at the dull state of trade, and the hope that the whole town might take fire, so that there might be work to be had...At about noon on May 7, he took leave of his comrades...saying, "I hope when I reach the town I shall find it in flames"...If this man was not the incendiary it is certainly a remarkable coincidence that...a few minutes after his return home, sparks were seen to issue from [his] garret...Blown into fury by the gale, the flames rapidly passed on from dwelling to dwelling, from manufactory to manufactory...That night about four thousand individuals, possessing nothing but the clothes on their backs, many even shoeless and hatless - all supperless - bivouacked under the trees or the starry heaven, waiting, hungry and exhausted, till the intelligence of their calamity had aroused the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts to supply them with the necessaries of life. It is certainly remarkable that only three lives were lost by this calamitous conflagration. The value of the property destroyed is estimated at about a million sterling'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.