opulated. Taking four of the most
thickly populated of the London districts (East London, Strand, Old Street,
St. Luke's, St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and St. George, Bloomsbury), we find
on a total area of 792 acres a population of 197,285, or an average of 249
persons per acre. In four of the most densely populated wards of New York
(10th, 11th, 13th, and 17th), we have on an area of 735 acres a population
of 258,966, or 352 persons per acre. This is 40 per cent. higher than in
London, the districts being about the same size, each containing about
1-1/5 square miles. Apart from the greater crowding which takes place in
New York, and the different style of buildings, another very fertile cause
of the spreading of fires is the freer use of wood in their construction.
It is asserted that in New York there is more than double the quantity of
wood used in buildings per acre than in London. From a house census
undertaken in 1882 by the New York Fire Department, moreover, it appears
that there were 106,885 buildings including sheds, of which 28,798 houses
were built of wood or other inflammable materials, besides 3,803 wooden
sheds, giving a total of 32,601 wooden buildings.

We are not aware that there are any wooden houses left in London. There are
other minor causes which act as checks upon the spreading of fires in
London. London houses are mostly small in size, and fires are thus confined
to a limited space between brick walls. Their walls are generally low and
well braced, which enable the firemen to approach them without danger.
About 60 per cent. of London houses are less than 22 feet high from the
pavement to the eaves; more than half of the remainder are less than 40
feet high, very few being over 50 feet high. This, of course, excludes the
newer buildings in the City. St. James's Palace does not exceed 40 feet,
the Bank of England not over 30 feet in height; but these are exceptional
structures. Fireproof roofings and projecting party walls also retard the
spreading of conflagrations. The houses being comparatively low and small,
the firemen are enabled to throw water easily over them, and to reach their
roofs with short ladders. There is in London an almost universal absence of
wooden additions and outbuildings, and the New York ash barrel or box kept
in the house is also unknown. The local authorities in London keep a strict
watch over the manufacture or storage of combustible materials in populous
parts of the city.