Glarus is burning - Fire of charity
Listen to the rumbling and ringing of greatest might. Day has dawned on darkest night. In the bright glow of the blaze stood the Glarus rock face in a fiery haze. The crackling sounded across the valleys along with tremendous fire alarm rallies. And voices broadcast far into the night hurry brother, Glarus is alight!
A strong wind rose up on 10 May 1861. Its raging peaked at half-past nine in the evening and the call that echoed through the streets of Glarus was "fire, fire!" A huge column of fire blazed in the air above the village square. The fire had started in a shed and had spread immediately to the surrounding buildings. The wind then started to fan the flames above the heads of the crowd, raining a cloud of sparks which broke out into new fires as soon as they hit the ground. The blood red sky proclaimed to those living miles away that disaster had struck Glarus. People came running from far and wide carrying water hoses; but human strength alone wasn't enough to put out the fire. The water that came streaming out of the hoses was carried away by the strong wind.
When Saturday dawned, most of Glarus had been reduced to ashes. 593 buildings had been burned down, 3000 people had lost the roofs over their heads along with everything they owned. A lot of people died in or as a consequence of the flames.
The damage to houses, personal property and public facilities exceeded CHF 10 million – with more than CHF 2,330,000 of the losses not being covered. The Cantonal Fire Insurance Institution had a mere CHF 544,000 in its reserves! Very few people had taken out private insurance: only 129 of the 763 who sustained damage had taken out some form of insurance cover!
There was a lot of devastation; but the lengths to which people went to help their fellow man was without precedent. Poor and rich, young and old alike – all did their utmost to help. People were already arriving from neighbouring Swiss towns on the Saturday, carrying shipments of food, clothes and other necessities. Every butcher in Zurich immediately cut ten pounds of his best meat and took it to the station. The Zurich Town Council decided to collect alms for the people of Glarus in the form of a church tax. They collected CHF 2.75 million and proceeded to meticulously register each and every donation as well as send out thank-you letters.
The state was obliged by law to jump in and help. Ten days after the devastating event, an extraordinary meeting of the Cantonal Annual Assembly gave the District Administrator and Government the go-ahead to issue a bond to cover the losses paid out of the canton's building insurance reserves and to help rebuild the government buildings.
This bond made it necessary for the country to levy an extraordinary fire tax and an additional supplement to the state tax, along with an increase in the price of salt, to offset the financial burden brought about by the fire.
There were already voices in the Cantonal Annual Assembly demanding that the Cantonal Fire Insurance Institution be done away with as it couldn't provide enough protection acting on its own.
Upon the initiative of the Canton of Glarus, attempts were made in December of the same year to collaborate with other cantons that had fire insurance institutions to create a reinsurance company.
The idea failed unfortunately due to the passive stance adopted by some of the other institutions. The disaster, however, spurred the industry into action, leading to the creation of insurance corporations.
And thus were founded Helvetia Feuer, Basler Feuer and Swiss Reinsurance Company.
