Great Fire of London - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# Great Fire of London

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The Great Fire of London. September 1666

The Great Fire Of London was a tragedy that happened in London, England in 1666. The fire lasted for four days, from September 2 until September 5. It burned down 13,200 houses, 87 churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the government buildings. It is believed that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the 80,000 people that lived in the city.

The fire started at the bakery of Thomas Farriner (or Farynor) in Pudding Lane at just after midnight on Sunday, September 2 and got bigger very fast. Firefighters of the time would usually make firebreaks by destroying buildings around the fire so it could not spread. This did not happen soon enough because the Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth was not certain what to do. By the time it happened, the bakery fire was too big for it to help much.

The fire pushed north on Monday into the center of the city. Some people thought that foreigners were setting the fires. They believed it was the French and Dutch. Both countries were England's enemies in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a war that was happening at that time. On Tuesday, the fire spread over most of the City, destroying St. Paul's Cathedral and crossed over the River Fleet. It was close to setting fire to Charles II's court at Whitehall.

The attempt to put out the fire is believed to have been won because of two things:

- The strong east winds slowed down. These winds were causing the fire to spread.
- The Tower of London guard used gunpowder to make good firebreaks that stopped the fire from spreading to the east.

The fire is said to have also helped to get rid of the Great Plague which had hit London in 1665, killing approximately 70,000 of the 90,000 population.

## [edit] External links

- BBC history site
- Channel 4 animation of the spread of the fire

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Categories: Pages to merge | 1666 | London | Disasters | History of the British Isles

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