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Great Boston Fire of 1872

Largest fire in Boston, Massachusetts, US

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The Great Boston Fire of 1872 stands as the largest fire in the history of Boston, Massachusetts, and ranks as one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83–87 Summer Street. The fire was finally contained around midday on November 10, after it had consumed about 65 acres (26 ha) of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings, and much of the financial district. It caused $73.5 million in damage —buildings losses totaled $13.5 million and the personal property loss was valued at $60 million. The number of fatalities is believed to have been 26 to "at least 30", depending on source, including 11 or 12 firefighters.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Great Boston Fire of 1872” as largest fire in Boston, Massachusetts, US. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1872—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Great, Boston and Fire can be independently traced.
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Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as largest fire in Boston, Massachusetts, US. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1872.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Great Boston Fire of 1872” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.