BRIAN O'NEILL Reducing Injury Losses: What Private Insurers Can and Cannot Do

Fire insurance began to develop in England after the London fire of 1666. The first US insurance company, formed in 1735, was a short-lived fire insurer. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin founded the first successful fire insurance company in the US, the Philadelphia Contributorship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Franklin campaigned to remove fire hazards from houses and grounds, developed the lightning rod to prevent fires. He designed the Franklin stove to provide more heat than an open fire at the same time, reducing the risk of home fires (O'Neill, 1987).