U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for January 13: Fire Hazard

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRE HAZARD

Profile America — Friday, January 13th. Today, when a home is damaged or destroyed by fire, there usually is no question that it was insured against such a common danger. The first fire insurance company in Colonial America was the Friendly Society for the Mutual Insurance of Houses Against Fire. Organized in 1734 in Charleston, South Carolina, it began receiving subscriptions in January 1735. The company was bankrupted, apparently by numerous claims after a disastrous citywide fire in 1740. The first full-time, professional firefighting company was formed in 1853 in Cincinnati. It was also the first to use steam-powered fire engines. Across the U.S., there are 255,000 professional firefighters and some 33,000 insurance carriers, which employ more than 1.4 million agents and staff. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4529
Cincinnati trailblazing/accessed 10/27/2016: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/fire/history/ 
Firefighters/American Community Survey: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_1YR/B24124 
Insurance companies/County Business Patterns/NAICS 5241
http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~5241

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau