During the period of America's swiftest industrialization and urban growth, fire struck fear in the hearts of city dwellers as did no other calamity. Before the

"Fire insurance maps are the footprints of America's Industrial Revolution, ... relics that bear witness to the mortality of businesses, industries and cities"-

That's how Wendell Potter introduced himself to a Senate committee in June 2009. He proceed to explain how insurance companies make promises they have no intent

Fire had always been one of the greatest threats to an early modern British society that relied on the naked flame as the prime source of heating, lighting and