I løbet af de ti og en halv time, som branden brændte, blev bygninger i et større område midt på Manhattan brændt ned til grunden.<ref name=":6">New York (N.Y.). Board of Aldermen, ''Document, Volume 12'', The Board, 1846, pp. 177–353.</ref> 30 personer i alt mistede livet under branden (fire brandfolk og 26 civile) og bygninger blev rapporteret ødelagt på Broadway, New Street, Broad Street, Exchange Place, Beaver Street, Marketfield Street, Whitehall Street og South William Street.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20130109150840/http://bsj.iccsafe.org/2010Dec/features/nyc_code_history.html Charles Shelhamer, "How Fire Disaster Shaped the Evolution of the New York City Building Code"]". ''Building Safety Journal''. Archived from the original on January 9, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013.</ref> Alt sammenlagt, nåede branden at ødelægge 345 bygninger i den sydlige af Manhattan, i området der i dag er kendt som Financial District.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=p5lBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA41 The Catskill Aqueduct and Earlier Water Supplies of the City of New York: With Elementary Chapters on the Source and Uses of Water and the Building of Aqueducts, and an Outline for an Allegorical Pageant]''. 1917. p. 41. Retrieved July 17, 2020.</ref>
Kemi