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Was the great Boston fire. It consumed 65 acres of downtown Boston, from the waterfront up to Beacon Hill. Modern day City Hall plaza (formerly Scollay Square), Post office square and environs were within the rubble zone. Rubble from the fire was used to fill in the waterfront creating Atlantic avenue. The first self propelled steam fire pumper in north america was used in the fire. (It was shipped down from Manchester, NH by the manufacturer during the fire) and subsequently purchased by the Boston Fire Department. Firefighters and pumpers (and looters and spectators) from Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut helped fight the fire.
The mayor deputized committees of citizens to demolish buildings in the path of the fire with barrels of gunpowder, despite objections of the fire department. The rubble of the buildings just burned faster. It was the last fire given the name Great [name of city] Fire in America, despite the Memorial day fire a year later that consumed 105 buildings in Boston, including the Globe Theater.

Regulatory laws and standards that were enacted afterwards, based on lessons learned included: standardizing fire hose couplings across the state; wholesale revising of building codes to make buildings more fire resistant, and actually enforcing those building codes.