008.LV9.Famous Disasters - The Great Fire of London, 1666

Level 9
Level 9
Famous Disasters: Famous Disasters:

The Great Fire of London, 1666 The Great Fire of
London, 1666
Copyright © 2013 by Little Fox Co., Ltd.

All rights reserved.
London Burning homes, shops, schools, prisons, and entire neighborhoods.
A simple mistake ignited

one of the worst fires in
It destroyed nearly ninety churches, including St. Paul’s
Cathedral, one of the oldest and grandest buildings in the
world history. city. The heat from the fire was so intense that it melted
Sometime in the early glass, coins, lead—even the thick iron bars of a city prison.
hours of Sunday, September By seven o’clock that first morning, three hundred
2, 1666, a baker named Thomas houses had already burned to the ground. By the time the
Farriner went to sleep in fire was completely extinguished—4 days later—nearly 80
A simple mistake set London on
London, England, without fire in 1666. percent of the city was in ashes.
extinguishing the fires in his oven. In the middle of the night,
the oven sparked a flame in the kitchen. Moments later the The Human Toll
fire was spreading quickly through his house on Pudding As the Great Fire
Lane. continued to burn, many
All the conditions were right that day for a terrible Londoners, including
conflagration. Within this old city, wooden buildings stood t h e k i n g ’s m o t h e r,
close together along narrow, winding, and crowded streets. Henrietta Maria, fled to
The summer had been hot and dry, and on September 2, a places outside the city.
strong wind was blowing. Fanned by these gusty winds, People left London on barges. Those who could afford
the fire rapidly consumed one building after another. By to move had their possessions taken from their homes and
midnight it had reached warehouses along the riverfront put on barges that floated to safer areas. Some people left
where highly flammable substances, such as wine, oil, tar, London and never returned.
and coal, further fueled its flames. Thousands of people camped around the city’s outskirts
In the hours and days to follow, the fire engulfed in tents and flimsy shacks with family members and
1 2
whatever possessions they had left. A well-known writer Fighting the Fire
named John Evelyn wrote that, in these refugee camps, Fire prevention and
he saw “poor inhabitants . . . many without a rag or any fire-fighting techniques in
necessary utensils, bed, or board; who . . . were now reduced the 1600s were not very
to . . . misery and poverty.” sophisticated. The city didn’t
Most people did not know what had caused the fire. have a fire department so
Citizens roamed the streets looking for arsonists who might people worked together to
Many people dumped buckets of
have deliberately started the blaze. Foreigners were blamed put out any fires that sprung water to fight the fire.
too. Those from Holland or France found themselves in up, mostly using buckets of water to douse the flames.
particular danger because England was at war with those The law required the creation of firebreaks, or open spaces
countries. One day, as the Great Fire burned, a mob of angry between buildings, to prevent fires from spreading easily. But
Londoners prowled the streets, looking for foreigners—and in London, the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, had
then killing any they found. hesitated to spend the money necessary to enforce this law.
It is not known And by the time Bloodworth finally ordered that buildings
precisely how many be demolished to make firebreaks—on Sunday, September
people perished in 2—it was far too late.
the fire. Information, King Charles put his brother, James, in charge of
especially about fighting the blaze. James organized teams of men who
poor people, was Thousands lost their homes in the fire. knocked down buildings to try to starve the fire of fuel. The
not carefully recorded. But experts agree that thousands king and his brother also rode around the city on horseback,
lost their homes and belongings. For many of those left urging people to pitch in and offering rewards to those who
homeless, exposure to cold weather soon led to illness and joined in the fight. Later both men were praised for their
death. efforts.
3 4
By late Wednesday, September 5, the wind had died People had many different ideas about what to do.
down, and many of the firebreaks had stopped the fire from Finally, after great debate, it was decided that London would
spreading further. The next morning only small fires burned be rebuilt according to its former street plan. But unlike
here and there. The Great Fire of London was finally over. the former plan, the
new plan was created
Recovering and Rebuilding with fire safety in
For Londoners, the recovery mind. Many streets
process was long and difficult. were widened and
After the fire many people felt straightened, and new
traumatized by its devastating houses were constructed The London street plan of 1611
effects. A famous writer named not with wood, but with brick and stone. Planners also made
Samuel Pepys, who kept a diary sure that the Thames River—an important water source for
during the fire, described his fighting fires—remained accessible.
recurring nightmares. Like many
others, he was “much terrified in After the Fire
the nights . . . with dreams of fire Samuel Pepys kept a famous The Great Fire of 1666 was one of the city’s worst
diary about the days of the
and falling down of houses.” fire. disasters. The fire burned for four days and four nights, and
King Charles continued trying to help the citizens of over thirteen thousand houses and four hundred acres of
London after the fire was put out. He ordered that bread land were destroyed. Many people were left homeless and
be distributed for free. He set up courts to resolve housing penniless, having lost everything in the fire.
disputes that broke out after the fire between tenants and But the tragedy also brought some benefits for London,
landlords. He also asked for the public’s ideas on the best as well as for the rest of the world. London was still
way to rebuild the ruined city. recovering from the Great Plague, which had ravaged the
5 6
city and taken thousands of lives. The fire killed rats that has also become a symbol of
carried the plague, perhaps helping to finally eradicate the London’s rebirth. Thousands
disease. In addition, the Great Fire led to the development of visitors climb its stairs each
of more sophisticated fire-fighting techniques. Newer year to look out on the city
cities were also planned with fire safety in mind. When that, once rebuilt, became the
Englishman William Penn London today center of a powerful empire.
founded the American
city of Philadelphia in
1682, he remembered the
fire in London. He made
sure the streets in his city
Philaelphia was built with wider streets
plan were more open and to avoid devastating fires.
the houses were not packed together too closely.

In 1668 Christopher Wren, a famous architect, began
making plans to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral on its original
site. By 1677 Wren had also erected a monument to the
Great Fire, often just called the Monument. Shaped like a
candle with flames at the top, this tall stone column marks
the spot where the fire started. Its north side is etched with
words that recall the terrible blaze that “devoured even
distant buildings and rushed . . . through every quarter with
astonishing swiftness and noise.”
But the Monument is not just a memorial to history; it
7 8
Photo Credits
The photo of covers: © Fcarucci | Dreamstime.com
The photo of page 1: Rita Greer 2008

Licensed for reuse under the Free Art License.

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Level 9

Famous Disasters: Famous Disasters:

Copyright © 2013 by Little Fox Co., Ltd.

A simple mistake ignited

the houses were not packed together too closely.

The photo of covers: © Fcarucci | Dreamstime.com

The photo of page 1: Rita Greer 2008

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