Great Fire Of London Coursework
Part 2: Why did it take so long to control the fire?
In the early hours of Sunday 2nd Setember 1666 in Thomas Farrinor's Royal bakery on pudding lane, a deadly fire broke out from the remains of the days fire. Few people would have known that the fire would rage for four days until Thursday 6th September. The growth of the fires path of destruction from one street to 350 acres of land was caused, aided and not prevented because of many factors.
Weather was in my opinion the most clinical factor in the decline of the wooden structure that was 17th century London. The previous two years had seen significant droughts and so in September 1666, London was a vulnerable place in the event of a fire. However, the reason the fire lasted so long was because of the wind. The spread of the fire from one easily flammable wooden roof to another was made effortless and uncontrollable by the East wind which also added Oxygen to the fire. This deadly wind lasted for the first three days of the fire and as soon as the wind subsided on the fourth day the fire was brought under control.
The other major reason for the fire spreading so much is the slow reaction and attitudes of the people, Mayor and King. In the early hours of the fire many of the locals tried to control the fire. They were soon joined by local parish constables (local men who worked as officers, usually unpaid and part-time, serving a ). The parish constable judged that the houses should be razed to prevent the fire spreading by creating a “fire break”. This was protested by the local residents and the Mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth was summoned for his authoritative orders. Bloodworth had, in fact assured the King that he would command the destruction of houses. Despite advice from experienced firefighters, the Mayor refused for fear of reparation costs. At this stage, even the King, Charles II sailed down from Whitehall in his Royal barge to inspect the fire. He was horrified to find that Bloodworth had defied his orders to pull houses down. In my opinion, this was a painfully stupid decision which if taken correctly, could have prevented a disaster of such a magnitude as was seen by the end of the week. He expressed a lack of concern that the fire would become dangerous, and was famously quoted as saying “pish, a woman might piss it out” before returning to his home and going back to sleep. Over the next three days, the fire would destroy more than 75 percent of the city. After realising his mistake he left London and the King’s brother, the Duke of York (James II) was put in charge of putting out the fire. James set up command posts around the perimeter of the fire and gathered men from the lower classes and organised thems Into teams of well-paid and well-fed firefighters. He kept order in the streets as well as authorising demolitions. A witness account read, "The Duke of York hath won the hearts of the people with his continual and indefatigable pains day and night in helping to quench the Fire". He is often credited for orgnising an effort to stop the fire.
