What was the most expensive arson in history? -- Was it the burning of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)?
Upvote:1
Destroying 2/3 of Rome, the Great Fire of Rome was probably the most expensive fire in history. The Great Fire of London and the Great Fire of Smyrna come close, as well.
Upvote:3
Let me expand my comment to an answer.
First of all, I agree with Lars that it is hard, if not impossible, to compare cost of fires from different eras, especially if some of these fires happened before the modern accounting and recording of costs. Even in the cases of Hiroshima/Nagasaki destruction, which both happened in the modern era, I am unaware of any estimates of the costs.
It is not exactly clear what "cost" really means. The minimalistic option is to go with the replacement value of the destroyed property, but what if the property was never replaced (as in the WTC attacks case)? What about the cost of the lost human lives/health? What about the costs of fire containment and clean-up? What about the immediate costs to the (local or global) economy?
It is also unclear to me what "single place" in your definition of arson means. For instance, in the case of WTC attacks, was the entire WTC a single place or two places (the separate towers)?
In any case, if we restrict to post-WWII period, my estimate is that 9/11 WTC attack(s) constitute the costliest arson(s). Why was it an act of arson: The dictionary definition of arson is "the criminal act of deliberately setting fire to property" does not take into account the mechanism of arson, whether it is done using matches and gasoline (as an accelerant) or airplanes and airplane fuel (as an accelerant). Some of the costs are documented at the Wikipedia article Economic effects of the September 11 attack. In particular,
The attacks themselves resulted in approximately $40 billion in insurance losses
Yes, one can count four attacks on 9/11/2001, but most insurance losses would be due to the WTC destruction. So, a crude estimate of insurance losses for each tower would be over 15 billion USD.
Furthermore, there were direct economic losses, just to NYC (from the same article) and the cost of clean-up:
The GDP for New York City was estimated to have declined by $30.3 billion over the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The Federal government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.
And I am not even counting the cost of the US war in Afghanistan (with costs running over a trillion of USD) which was a direct consequence of the attacks.
How does this compare to the costs of the fires to Hiroshima or Nagasaki or great fires of Rome, London, Moscow, Smirna, etc, I do not know: I do not think we have enough data for such a comparison. Furthermore, I do not think any of the latter are known to be due to an act of arson at a single place. From what I know, the Great Fire of London was caused by an accident; nobody exactly knows the causes of the Great fires of Rome and Moscow. In the case of Smirna, opinions vary, but the sources I know point to multiple arsons at various locations, rather than a single act of arson. I think, this is one thing on which different sources agree in this case.
More post
- 📝 What is the historical name(s) for area between Syria and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 Was the population of Moscow wildly overstated during the Cold War?
- 📝 Why was there relatively little use of land mines in WW1?
- 📝 What factors contribute to the fact that only a handful of countries manufacture aircraft jet engines?
- 📝 Scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant social ordering in ancient/medieval China
- 📝 Medieval Saharan Caravan Navigation
- 📝 Are views in Thailand on Axis powers influenced by colonization?
- 📝 Was there trade among African empires?
- 📝 What damage did anti-tank rifles hope to inflict on tanks in WW2?
- 📝 Is there a Greek myth of Poseidon "dating" his daughter in the form of a dolphin?
- 📝 What does Deng Xiaoping mean by "Hide your capacities, bide your time '?
- 📝 Why did the ancient Romans use groups of eight?
- 📝 What percentage of modern day Turks are of Bulgarian/Circassian/Greek/Serbian descent?
- 📝 Luddite revolutions
- 📝 Wouldn't shortening the front also shorten it for the enemy?
- 📝 What was the hippie movement? Why did it decline?
- 📝 When did Wiktoria Narutowicz die?
- 📝 How many wars have there been in Europe since WW2?
- 📝 How was the U.S. divided regarding the French Revolution around 1789?
- 📝 Proportion of population that works in agriculture (1000 - today)
- 📝 When did people start believing aliens are abducting cows?
- 📝 Why was the ship "Palmyra" so named?
- 📝 Is the Bible considered a reliable historical resource?
- 📝 How was the administration of the liberated part of The Netherlands organised between 12 September 1944 and 5 May 1945?
- 📝 When did Romans give sticks to children to beat an enemy traitor?
- 📝 Were ancient Egyptians secretly monotheistic?
- 📝 What happened to the compass platform on the Titanic?
- 📝 Where is the sword used to execute Queen Anne Boleyn?
- 📝 How can prices be compared over time?
- 📝 Was there ever a male-equivalent to a harem in the Ottoman Empire?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the most expensive arson in history? -- Was it the burning of the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6)?
- 📝 What was the first battle in history fought by vast-majority-% "distance-shooting" non-mechanized force?
- 📝 What was the most recent country to be conquered and disappear?
- 📝 What was the relatively most populous city in history?
- 📝 What was the most accurate map of the world before artificial satellites?
- 📝 What was the most important cause of the Second World War?
- 📝 What was the first recorded instance of burning a city or village in war?
- 📝 What was the most recent Catholic coronation ceremony of a king?
- 📝 What was the fate of most SS members after World War II?
- 📝 After the split with Stalin, what was Yugoslavia's official attitude towards Soviet history before Stalin's takeover?
- 📝 What was the most popular food staple among civilians during World War II?
- 📝 What was the most important change that took place in American society as a result of the New Deal?
- 📝 What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
- 📝 What irreplaceable manuscripts were lost in the burning of Jaffna Public Library and what history did they contain (and subsequently lost forever)?
- 📝 What was the most effective instrument used to disenfranchise the black population in Louisiana?
- 📝 What are the most recommended non-biased books on Egyptian History
- 📝 Is the history of relations between Ukraine and Russia similar to what was between Ireland and Uk?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What was the historical context of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 What was the religion of the Arabic people before conversion to Islam?
- 📝 What was the purpose of Nazi extermination camps?
- 📝 What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing?
- 📝 What was the function of the walls of Jericho?
- 📝 What was the pound (unit of weight) initially equal to?
- 📝 At what point was the Byzantine Empire's decline irreversible?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?