FIRES IN LONDON DURING THE PAST YEAR.

FIRES IN LONDON DURING THE PAST YEAR.

Captain Shaw, C. B., Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, has presented to the Metropolitan Board of Works his annual report of the state of the Brigade and the fires in London during 1880, and of which the following are the principal parts:—The number of calls for fires or supposed fires received during the year has be 2194. Of these 206 were false alarms, 1x7 pr ved to be only chimney alarms, and 1,871 were calls for fires, of which 162 resulted in serious damage, and 1709 in slight damage. These figures refer only to the regular calls for fires or supposed fires, involving the turning out of Firemen, Fire-Engines, fire-escapes, horses and coachmen. They do not include trifling damages by fires which were not sufficiently important to require the attendance of Firemen; neither do they include the ordinary calls for chimneys on fire, which are separately accounted for further on.

The fires of 1880, compared with those of 1879, show an increase of 153 ; and compared with the average of the last ten years, an increase of 224. The proportion of serious to slight losses, 162 to 1709, is decidedly favorable; and, although there has been a very large increase in the total number of fires, the amount of property destroyed compared most advantageously wi h the losses of former years. The number of persons seriously endangered by fire has been 160, of whom 127 were saved, and 33 lost their lives. Of the 33 lost, 14 were taken out alive, but died afterwards in hospitals or elsewhere, and 19 were suffocated or burnt to death.