In the U.S.A. during the Cival War many court houses were burned with records. This was told many times in many towns that I researched and was told the same thing. Pat ---- [email protected] wrote: > Well, you see before there was electricity all over the country, Americans > relied on various forms of fire to light and heat buildings (you know > this, but may be neglecting it). A candle or oil lamp left burning next to > something flammable, or near a window left open with cloth drapes, a flue > that didn't get cleaned and ignites from the inside, etc. There are any > number of reasons why wooden buildings easily caught fire in times less > modern than ours. We didn't always have such "wonderful" rules and > regulations and safety equipment as we do today. A simple careless act of > leaving a candle burning and a window open, allowing a breeze to blow a > curtain over an open flame is all it takes to ignite some dry wood and > burn down a building. But it wasn't just courthouses. Fires were quite > common a hundred and two hundred years ago. Chicago burned down more than > once. Chicago had "great fires" before Mrs. O'Leary's "great barn fire". > We'll never know the cause of many of those fires, but there is anecdotal > evidence that a drunken neighbor knocked over a lantern in Mrs. O'Leary's > barn and caused it. In the Midwest, lightning was also a culprit. > Of course you can't rule out pranksters and disgruntled citizens either. > > Fires were pretty common in Germany too. However most of the public > buildings in Germany weren't made of wood, so you don't have as many total > courthouse fires and the fires that destroyed records in German were > mostly war related, I think. > > Hopefully that is enough info to end this thread or bring it more on topic. > > Brian > > On Thu, April 16, 2009 11:02 am, [email protected] wrote: > > I have seen statements like this many times before, but no one has ever > > explained why so many court houses have been burned down. No one has > > even > > asked until I am doing so now. Are there some serial arsonists who > > concentrate on court houses? It doesn't seem likely that there would be > > so many such > > fires normally. > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message