Fires are the commonplace events of a city's history, and every city's records are full of these occurrences. During the twenty years under review large fires alone, _i.e._, those causing damage to the extent of £10,000, destroyed property to the value of over half a million sterling. The first of these took place on January 13th, 1901, and completely destroyed three large buildings in Commerce and Customs Streets, and damaged two others. The principal losers by the fire were Messrs. Bond and Bell, L. D. Nathan and Co. (bond store), and G. W. Owen and Co. The origin of the fire was unknown, but owing to the inflammable nature of the goods in stock, the flames soon obtained a firm hold of the buildings, and in three hours had entirely consumed them. The loss sustained in the fire amounted to £90,000 (estimated). The Fire Brigades were unfit to cope with so large a conflagration, on account of the inadequacy of their appliances, although the water pressure was all that was required. A characteristic of the fires which had occurred in Auckland up to this time was that, with one exception, no lives had been lost. The Grand Hotel fire of May 31st, 1901, was unfortunately responsible for the death of five persons--three children and two adults. The building was burned out, only the walls remaining. The damage was approximately £12,000. A disastrous outbreak of fire took place on 4th May, 1904, in the warehouse belonging to Messrs. T. and S. Morrin, High Street, practically gutting the building and destroying a valuable stock of ironmongery. The damage was estimated to be in excess of £50,000. A number of firemen were injured by the collapse of a wall. After this fire had been brought under control, another outbreak in the retail premises of the same firm, which stood on the other side of High Street. Fortunately, it was confined to the roof. The City Chambers, situated at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, was destroyed by fire in the early part of the evening of June 21st, 1906. All the storeys except the first were destroyed. The damage to the building amounted to considerably over £10,000, and the loss on stock was also considerable, but difficult to ascertain, as the Chambers were rented as offices and occupied by many people. Another serious fire, causing damage estimated at £100,000, destroyed the four-storeyed building in Queen Street, known as the Strand Arcade, on August 16th, 1909. So intense were the flames that in two hours the building, which had only been erected eight years, was reduced to a heap of ruins. It was due to the energies of the Fire Brigades that the hotels on either side of the Arcade were not involved in the conflagration.