Fire insurance was first established in London in 1667. Why then? Because in 1666 a major fire devastated the city, destroying 1,400 buildings and leaving 200,000 QuotesChimp? homeless. It may have been lucky that the Fire Office, as the company was called by founder Nicholas Barbon, had not been in existence at the time of the fire?no one might have been willing to risk selling fire insurance again.