Great Boston Fire of 1872

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 is Boston's largest urban fire, and still ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history.

The conflagration begins at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83—87 Summer Street in Boston, Massachusetts.

The fire is finally contained twelve hours later, after it has consumed about sixty-five acres (twenty-six hectares) of Boston's downtown, seven hundred and seventy-six buildings and much of the financial district, and caused seventy-three and a half million dollars in damage.

At least thirty people are known to have died in the fire.