September 6: The 1666 "Great Fire of London"

[Music] every so often I will come across a story from centuries ago heck I've even gone back close to 2,000 years for one story that I told already today we are going back to the year 1666 to look at the Great Fire of London hi I'm Chris May writer producer and host of this day in weather history now in its second year from The Weather Network in Canada today we pick things up at the end and look back at what happened between the dates September 2nd and September 6th on this day in weather history during the legendary great London Fire all right first thing straight up you must remember that London England before it was the city that we know today as the center of British culture was the center of the Roman Empire and this fire swept through the central parts of the city from Sunday September 2nd through the 6th of 1666 and among the collateral damage was a total gutting of the medieval city of London inside the old Roman city wall so just what happened the answer is inside of what didn't happen you see after two rainy summers in the year 1664 and 1665 things dried up like literally dried up since that last rainfall in November of 1665 London went on to suffer a catastrophically crippling drought and with building ings of that time being made completely out of wood they were therefore Tinder dry after the long hot summer of 1666 and in a very precarious State should a fire ever break out and this is 1666 so things like these are known to happen the great fire started in a local bakery known back then as a baker's house on ironically perhaps a street known as pudding Lane welcome to year 2 of this podcast right now you're listening to the full version of today's story on your favorite podcast provider but there's also the daily podcast video short they're shot right here in my podcast recording studio so you get that perspective but often times they will include visuals from that day's event from when it happened in weather history so after listening to the full story go check out the podcast video short on television or online anytime at the weathernetwork.com slwe history it started shortly after midnight on the 2 and as a result of the Tinder dry buildings I mentioned a moment ago spread rapidly across London in its sweep of the city it destroyed 13,200 houses 87 Parish churches St Paul's Cathedral and most of the buildings of the city authorities it is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the 80,000 citizens of the city at that time officially only six deaths were recorded reped however the true death toll is unknown some historians believe that the deaths of poorer citizens were never recorded and that the heat of the fire may have cremated them leaving no way to account for a true number now why would they have come to that conclusion it seems rather extreme when you first hear it but today on display at the Museum of London there is a piece of melted Pottery found by archaeologists on pudding Lane where the fire started this artifact has been determined to have melted under a temperature that reached 1, 1250° C that's close to 2,300 de F so needless to say the major firefighting techniques of 1666 were likely insufficient to battle that level of Inferno so what did they do it was common Proctors to create Fire breakes by way of controlled demolition but that extreme of a measure obviously needed to be authorized by the mayor and Lord mayor of London Sir Thomas Bloodworth took a lot of time mulling over the situation because obviously a lot of people did not want their buildings being destroyed to help fight a fire but it is said that this indecisiveness allowed the weather to take control when a wind blew through on Sunday Banning the Flames of the bakery fire into a full-on firestorm that actually fed itself and cre created its own weather that rendered any plan to try and head it off totally useless now this fire was out of control and then the fire pushed North through the next day and Into the Heart of London by Tuesday the fire spread over most of the city this is when it destroyed St Paul's Cathedral and continued to LEAP the river Fleet and threatened King Charles II's court at whiteall the firefighting efforts now had to be stepped up exponentially they were now fighting a war there needed to be a unified front against this enemy and there needed to be luck enter the weather again in this story The Great Fire of London was overcome because of two factors a the fire brakes were effectively set up by the Tower of London's security Garrison who used gunpowder to create the effect of fire brakes and this prevented any further movement East and B that strong easterly wind I told you about that caused its rapid spread while the mayor sat undecided well it finally died down this is how the Great Fire of London was finally extinguished on September 6th of 1666 this day in weather history tomorrow is September 7th and back in 1991 the hail capital of Canada Calgary Alberta was shredded by a 30-minute hail storm at first you may think hey wait a minute here 30 minutes after all these hurricane stories what we just found out that happened in London how is this impactful that's why we're talking about this tomorrow on this day in weather history with me your host Chris May