Throughout the history of major fires, almost all of them started unintentionally, and often a single spark started a prairie fire in an instant, resulting in painful losses. The following are some famous and influential fires in history.
1, the fire in Rome
It took place on July 18, 64 AD, and lasted 1 day (one said it was five days). This painting is a fire painting imagined by the artist. According to Tacitus, a historian who lived in Rome when the fire broke out, the fire started in the shopping street near the Colosseum in ancient Rome.
As for the cause of the fire, the official record is an accidental fire. Emperor Nero, who went out shortly after the fire, quickly returned to Rome to direct disaster relief. Tacitus also agrees with this statement. But people have always heard that this fire is a conspiracy of cruel Nero.
(Above) The Fire in Rome
The Roman fire broke out in July 6438+08 AD, when Nero was the monarch of the Roman Empire. About this fire, it's almost two thousand years since it happened, and people in the Middle Ages also have literature records on this topic, which makes the whole story of the fire incident vague.
According to historical records, the fire lasted for a day, but it was also controversial. According to Tacitus (he was nine years old when the fire broke out), the fire spread and burned for five days. Generally speaking, this fire was set by Emperor Nero in order to seize the property of the rich in the city and frame Christians. But according to historical records, Emperor Nero was not in Rome when the fire broke out. Some people say that the fire should be an accident, while others suspect that Christians started it. After the fire, Rome was almost in ruins. /kloc-only four people survived in the 0/4 block, and thousands of people died.
(Above) Li Ming Fire
2, Ming calendar fire
The fire of the Ming Dynasty occurred on March 2, 657/kloc-0, and lasted for 2 days. It is the most disastrous fire in Japanese history, second only to Tokyo's air attack on the Great Kanto Earthquake, and it is also called the three major fires in the world with the London fire and the Rome fire.
The fire broke out in Edo, Japan, which is now Tokyo. At that time, Benmiao Temple in Edo was doing something for a girl who died of a serious illness. After the ceremony, there was a strong wind when the body was cremated. The wind blew away the burning sleeves on the body and ignited the building fire.
At that time, the population density of Edo was extremely high. Ordinary people generally only have six tatami (about 9.6 square meters) living space (including toilet, kitchen and bedroom). The roads are crowded, the fire prevention measures are backward, and the houses are basically all wood structures with poor fire resistance. The two-day fire destroyed two-thirds of Edo City and killed one-third of the population (* * * caused about 65,438+007,000 deaths).
3. London fire
The London fire broke out on September 2nd, 1666, and lasted for four days. This is the worst fire in the history of London.
The fire destroyed one-sixth of the buildings in London, and about 13000 houses and 87 churches were destroyed. At that time, London was the largest city in Britain with a population of about 500,000, but the urban infrastructure was extremely poor, and the buildings were mainly wooden structures.
The cause of the fire was that a bakery owner forgot to put out the burning bread stove after baking bread. The fire set fire to the house and spread rapidly. As the day of the fire was Sunday, the management failed to deal with it in time, resulting in the fire finally getting out of control.
(Above) London Fire
The fire lasted for four days. Fortunately, only eight people were killed in the fire, but fortunately, the fire killed a large number of rats in London, and there was no large-scale plague in London since then.
4. Copenhagen fire
The Copenhagen fire broke out in 1728, 10/0/0 on October 20th, and lasted for 4 days. This is the worst fire in the history of Copenhagen.
(Above) The Copenhagen fire.
According to accurate estimates after the disaster, 28% of urban buildings were burned down, and 20% of the 70,000 urban population was homeless. The number of casualties is unknown. The fire was caused by the 7-year-old son of a small restaurant owner in the city who accidentally knocked over the candlestick. The economic loss of the Benhagen fire is measurable, but the cultural loss is immeasurable. In the fire, the library of the University of Copenhagen was completely destroyed, and 35,000 books were set on fire, many of which were rare and isolated books left over from the Middle Ages.
The observation equipment and records of the Observatory of the University of Copenhagen were also burned. At that time, pessimistic citizens lamented that a fire burned Copenhagen back to the Middle Ages, and it took nine years to rebuild after the fire.
5. The Fire of Dawn
The dawn fire broke out on March 7th, 1788, and lasted for two days. This is a serious fire in Japanese history. The dawn fire started in an empty house in the suburbs. The cause of the fire was unknown, but strong winds and all-wood urban buildings soon led to the fire getting out of control.
According to the records released by the edo shogunate after the disaster, the fire destroyed 36,797 houses, 20/kloc-0 temples and 37 shrines. Burned buildings account for 80% of the total number of buildings in Kyoto. There are different opinions about the number of casualties. The official statement of the edo shogunate is 150, but some surveys believe that 1800 people were burned to death.
Dawn fire has had a great negative impact on the economic development of Kyoto. The slow reconstruction after the disaster has seriously hindered the handicraft and agricultural production in Kyoto and its surrounding areas, and some advanced handicraft technologies have been transferred from Kyoto to its surrounding areas.
(Above) The Fire of Dawn
6. Turku fire
The Turku fire broke out on 1 September 4, 827, and lasted for1day, making it the biggest fire in Finnish history.
Turku fire is the biggest fire in Finnish history. Turku is the oldest city in Finland. 18 12 years ago was the capital of Finland. Turku also owns the first university in Finnish history-the Royal College of Turku. 18 12 Turku remains the most important city in Finland after the Finnish government moved its capital to Helsinki. However, the Turku fire in 1827 destroyed 75% of the buildings in Turku overnight, leaving 1 1000 homeless, 27 burned and hundreds injured.
(above) St. Louis fire
7. St. Louis fire
The fire in St. Louis occurred in May 1849 and lasted 1 1 hour. St Louis lies at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The fire was started by a steamboat "Baiyun", which ignited other steamboats moored at the dock.
At that time, there was no professional fire brigade in St. Louis, and all firefighters were volunteers. The disaster relief efficiency is low. The fire spread from the ship to the dock, igniting a large number of buildings, and eventually burned 430 buildings, 23 large steamboats and countless boats and kayaks, killing three people.
A fireman named Thomas B. Taji died in the fire. This is the first firefighter who died in the line of duty in American history.
8. Chicago fire
The Chicago fire broke out in 187 1 10 and lasted for 3 days. This is one of the most important fires in America in the19th century.
65438+1October 8th 2 1: 45, Chicago on Sunday night, a stubborn cow kicked over the oil lamp on the haystack, which triggered a terrible fire that shocked the world.
The 30-hour nightmare almost destroyed the fastest growing city in the United States at that time. According to official statistics, the fire caused 65,438+10,000 people to be homeless and 300 people died. According to the dead bodies found, there are countless livestock casualties, and the indirect losses are incalculable.
(Above) Chicago Fire
As the fire approached, many firefighters in Chicago had to give up fighting because they had no water to put out the fire. Strangely, on the same day, a fire tornado disaster occurred in Wisconsin, with casualties and losses much higher than the Chicago fire. However, it was ignored because it happened on the same day as the Chicago fire!
9. Did Epang Palace really burn down in the history of China?
Epang Palace in Qin Dynasty is the government decree center planned by Qin Dynasty, and the palace complex is large in scale. It is located at 13km west of Xi City, Shaanxi Province, facing Xianyang and Qin Dou across the Weihe River.
In order to build Epang Palace, Qin Shihuang invited countless wizards to look for a treasure trove of geomantic omen near Xianyang. Finally, he thought that the place between the two capitals of Zhou Dynasty was the most suitable.
Epang Palace was burned by Xiang Yu. This story has been circulated in China for 2000 years, and it has been cited as an allusion by countless literati. It seems to be an established thing in archaeology.
However, Epang Palace has never been built in history, let alone burned down. That's just an unfinished dream of Qin Shihuang. Its excessive beauty and luxury aggravated the bad luck of the Qin Dynasty, making it a notorious palace. After the Qin Dynasty, similar ideas never arose in China for nearly two thousand years.