Von Feuer und Flammen

18 extensive village fires have been recorded, especially severe ones for the years 1559, 1575, 1656, 1723, 1742 and 1845.

The buildings of today's Altdorf regularly burned to the ground, either because Ammann Risch Dakajans had failed to shout "Fürio!" in 1559 when he was the first to discover the fire; or because Portenrichter Vergith hung his lantern too close to the haystack in 1742. Even though from 1767 a fire brigade regulation was in force, which forbade the innkeepers, for example, to give their guests a light in the room, it burned again and again.

In 1845, it was a Sunday in June, the Thusner on a walk in the surrounding forests and meadows, it broke out for the last and worst time so far: Starting from the "Gässli", half the village burned within ten minutes, within half an hour the whole of Thusis was in flames. 80 houses and as many stables were destroyed. Even if there were no deaths to mourn, it was a heavy blow for the according to a newspaper report "after Chur most prosperous place in the canton".