Worst Fires in History
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From Rome to New York, fire has been one of the most disastrous calamities to effect our world. Fire is a tool, it’s a weapon, and catastrophe all rolled into one. It somehow manages to find a place for itself at the table of every major catastrophic event, including ones that involve a lot of water, like tsunamis. Fires are deadly and almost impossible to contain. Home fires cause more than $6 billion in damages a year. In 2012 alone, forest fires claimed 9.33 million acres of land, and cost nearly $2 billion to suppress. Every five seconds someone is severely burned. Each year, 265,000 people are estimated to die from burn injuries, and chances are, that half or more of your own scars came from burns.
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Worst Fires in History
- 2. There are several different accounts for exactly what happened on July 18, 64 A.D. That night, a fire broke out in the shops along the Circus Maximus, the enormous chariot stadium in Rome. The fire grew and spread, eventually burning for six days before it was finally brought under control; however, it then reignited and burned for another three days. Several differing accounts were written, placing the blame for the fire upon Christians, labeling the fire a mere accident, or most popularly, upon Emperor Nero, himself, famously "fiddling while Rome burned." TOTAL DEATH COUNT UNKNOWN NUMBER 10OUTOF14 THE TEMPLE ANDTHE WEREBOTH JUPITER OF STATOR ATRIUM VESTAE DESTROYED DISTRICTS DESTROYED ROME, 64 A.D.
- 3. Citizens of London who were on the north bank of the Thames saw the fire and rushed across the London Bridge. Strong winds carried embers from the fire across the river again and set the straw and wooden buildings on the north side of the bridge, trapping people on the bridge, with fires burning on both sides. Several died in the fire, and many more died or were crushed while attempting to get onto rescue boats in the river. The actual death toll is unknown, but it's very likely that, excluding wartime attacks and prolonged events such as plague and smog, this fire is the worst disaster in London's history. LONDON, 1212 TOTAL (BUT THAT NUMBER IS DEBATED) DEATH COUNT 3000 THE BRIDGE WAS WEAKENED AND EVENTUALLY COLLAPSED WHEN THE THAMES FROZE OVER AND ICE BLOCKS SWEPT AWAY SEVERAL ARCHES SEVERAL HOUSES WERE DESTROYED
- 4. On October 7, 1871, one day before the Great Chicago Fire, a forest fire began in an unknown spot in a forest near Peshtigo, Wisconsin, a company lumber and sawmill town, which held one of the largest wood-products factories in the United States at the time. The fire first spread to a small village named Sugar Bush, killing every resident of the town. Strong winds then pushed the flames, reaching 200 feet high, toward PESHTIGO, 1871 DEATH COUNT BETWEEN AND 1200 2500 Peshtigo, reaching temperatures of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and causing trees to explode from the heat. The fire hit Peshtigo suddenly, killing hundreds of people. Several fled to the river, and while some survived, several ended up drowning or dying of hypothermia.
- 5. On the night of October 8, 1871, a fire began in or around a barn on the property of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary, on the southwest edge of the city. The cause of the fire is debated, though initially, the blame was placed on the O'Learys' cow kicking over a lantern, which Mrs. O'Leary denied. The true cause of the fire has never been determined. Whatever the CHICAGO, 1871 cause, though, the fire spread quickly toward the city center. The fire burned until October 10, when rain helped to douse the flames. An outbreak of looting ensued, leading to martial law being declared for several weeks. In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution that exonerated Mrs. O'Leary and her cow. TOTAL DEATH COUNT BUILDINGS DESTROYED PROPERTY DAMAGE 300 17,000+ $200,000,000 MARTIAL LAW DUETOAN WAS DECLARED AFTER 3 DAYS OUTBREAK OF LOOTING
- 6. At about 7:00 PM, the fire began in a six-story building at the intersection of Kingston and Summer streets in the business district. When the first alarm rang, the building was already engulfed. Due to several factors, the fire got out of control very quickly: the area around the building was largely made up of tall wooden buildings filled with flammable materials, the fire department was short staffed, the water mains in the city had not been upgraded in the years since the Civil War, and the horses that normally pulled the fire engines were sick, causing the firemen to have to pull the engines themselves. City officials had several buildings blown up with black powder in a failed attempt to create a fire break, against the fire chief's orders. BOSTON, 1872 TOTAL DEATH COUNT ACRES OF THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT DESTROYED $3.5MILLION INPROPERTY DAMAGES $60MILLION PERSONAL PROPERTY DESTROYED 60 30
- 7. TOTAL DEATH COUNT BUILDINGS DESTROYED TOTAL LEFT HOMELESS 3000+ 28,000 250,000 500MILLION $13billion THATʼsABOUT WITHINFLATION 1906DOLLARS INDAMAGES SAN FRANCISCO, 1906 At 5:12 AM on April 18, 1906, an earthquake struck that was felt from souther Oregon to south of Los Angeles, and as far as central Nevada. This triggered several fires in the city and destroyed the city's water mains, meaning the firefighters were unable to fight the fire. Additionally, Dennis Sullivan, the city's fire chief, was mortally wounded in the initial quake, leaving the fire department without a central coordinator for the firefighting efforts.
- 8. TOTAL DEATH COUNT OF TOKYO DESTROYED 140,000 45% TOKYO, 1923 On September 1, 1923, an earthquake struck Tokyo, Japan, doing massive damage and generating a 40-foot tsunami. Within about 15 minutes, fires had broken out in 83 locations. Within another 15 minutes, that number had risen to 136. Several fires broke out and burned through the city, setting houses alight. In the first few hours, 44,000 people sought refuge near the Sumida River; however, a 300-foot-tall "fire tornado," also known as a "dragon twist," blew through the area, killing all but 300 of them. The fires burned across the city until about 45 percent of the city had burned.
- 9. NEW YORK, 2001 On the morning of September 11, 2001, militants who were part of an extremist group hijacked four commercial planes. Two of them were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the first near the 80th floor of the north tower, and the second near the 60th floor of the south tower. Each plane was loaded with several thousand gallons of fuel in preparation for a cross-country flight to California. The resulting explosion threw burning debris into the buildings and streets surrounding the towers and created an incredibly hot inferno with the burning jet fuel. Hundreds of people were killed immediately, while even more were trapped on higher floors. Eventually, the heat of the fire combined with the impact of the planes caused structural supports to fail, and the two buildings collapsed, killing thousands.