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List of town and city fires

Major urban fires affecting more than one building From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This is a list of major urban conflagrations. Before the 20th century, fires were a major hazard to urban areas and the cause of massive amounts of damage to cities.

For notable fires that involved a single structure, see list of building or structure fires. Other lists record wildfires (including forest fires) and transportation fires, though those that caused significant urban damage also appear on that list.

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Antiquity to Middle Ages

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16th century

17th century

  • 1608  First settlement in Jamestown, Virginia burnt.
  • 1615  Great Fire of Wymondham, Norfolk, England, two simultaneous fires destroyed 300 properties.
  • 1624  Oslo, Norway, destroyed by fire.
  • 1625  First Great Stockholm Fire, Sweden, burned for three days and destroyed a fifth of the infrastructure.
  • 1633  Great Istanbul Fire of 1633, Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey, started in the Cibali Gate Port due to a reckless caulker, burned for three days from early Friday morning to Sunday. About 20,000 buildings and all the ships docked on the Cibali Gate Port were demolished.
  • 1652  Glasgow, Scotland, a third of the city destroyed and over 1,000 families left homeless.[4]
  • 1653  Great Fire of Marlborough, England, destroyed the Guildhall, St Mary's Church, the County Armoury, and 224 dwellings.
  • 1656  Fire of Aachen destroys 4,664 houses, kills 17.
  • 1657  Great Fire of Meireki destroys two-thirds of the Japanese capital Edo (modern-day Tokyo).[5]
  • 1660  Fire in Istanbul, Turkey, destroys two-thirds of the city and kills an estimated 40,000 people.[6]
  • 1663  Great Fire of Nagasaki destroys the port of Nagasaki in Japan.[7]
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Great Fire of London, 1666
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18th century

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Fire of Cap Français, Haiti, 21 June 1793
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19th century

1800s

1810s

1820s

1830s

1840s

  • 1842  Great fire of Hamburg, about a quarter of the inner city destroyed, 51 killed, and an estimated 20,000 homeless.
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Views of Pittsburgh the day after the 1845 Great Fire. Detail from William Coventry Wall print, "Great Conflagration at Pittsburgh".

1850s

1860s

1870s

  • 1870  Fire in Medina, Ohio, started in a wooden building with a barber shop and consumed all but two blocks of the business district, nearly wiping out the entire town.
  • 1871  Fires deliberately set during the Paris Commune in May destroyed the Royal Palace of the Tuileries, the Louvre Library, the Palais de Justice, the Hôtel de Ville, the Gare de Lyon, and the Palais d'Orsay.
  • 1871  Strong winds fed several simultaneous fires in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois on October 8–9 named the Great Fires of 1871:
  • 1872  Great Boston Fire of 1872, destroyed 776 buildings and killed at least 20 people.
  • 1874  Chicago Fire of 1874, July 14, was in some respects very similar to the 1871 fire, but was stopped by a new fire-proof wall. It destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people.
  • 1875  Great Whiskey Fire, Dublin, 18 June, killed 13 people, and destroyed a malt house, a bonded warehouse, houses and a tannery in Mill Street and Chamber Street.
  • 1877 – Paris, Texas, the first of three fires that destroyed much of the town.
  • 1877  Saint John, New Brunswick, fire destroyed 1,600 buildings.
  • 1878  The Great Fire of Hong Kong[19] destroyed 350 to 400 buildings across more than 10 acres (40,000 m2) of central Hong Kong.
  • 1879  Hakodate fire, Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan, caused 67 fatalities, 20,000 homeless.[20]
  • 1879  A large fire nearly destroyed the town of Deadwood, South Dakota destroying at least 300 buildings and killing one.

1880s

  • 1880  On 25 September, another fire took place destroying most of the older civil records (births, baptisms, marriages, etc.) of the Ponce, Puerto Rico, parish.[21]
  • 1881  The Great Ryōgoku Fire and Hisamatsuchō Fire occurred in January and February, respectively, destroying over 20,000 homes in total in Tokyo, Japan.[22]
  • 1881  Thumb Fire in Michigan burned over a million acres during a drought, 282 killed.
  • 1882 - the exhibition building constructed to house the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879 in Sydney, Australia. On September 22nd, 1882 it was completely destroyed by fire. It was designed by James Barnet and constructed by John Young, at a cost of £191,800 in only eight months.
  • 1883  In mid August, a Great Fire broke out in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, destroying the royal palace and 1,600 buildings, many housing gunpowder.[23][24]
  • 1886  Fire in Calgary, Alberta
  • 1886  Great Vancouver Fire, Vancouver, British Columbia
  • 1888  Sundsvall Fire of 1888, Sweden, left 9,000 homeless.
  • 1889  Great Seattle Fire, Washington, destroyed the central business district
  • 1889  Great Spokane Fire, Washington, destroyed the downtown commercial district.[25]
  • 1889  Great Ellensburg Fire, Washington, resulted in the city's bid to become the state capital ending in failure.
  • 1889  Great Bakersfield Fire of 1889, California, destroyed 196 buildings and killed 1 person.
  • 1889  The First Great Fire of Lynn, Massachusetts, destroyed about 100 buildings and took over 2 weeks to put out.[26]
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City of St. John's after the Great Fire of 1892

1890s

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20th century

1900s

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

  • 1940–1945  Air raids during World War II resulted in many major city fires:
  • 1941  The great fire of Santander, Spain, destroyed the greater part of the medieval town centre.
  • 1944  Destruction of Warsaw by the German army and Waffen SS, as a reprisal for the Warsaw Uprising, included the deliberate burning of many buildings.[41]
  • 1946  Bandung, a city in West Java, Indonesia, was burned on 24 March by Indonesians to prevent the Dutch from retaking the city, an event called "Bandung sea of fire".
  • 1947  Texas City Disaster, two ships explode, igniting fires throughout the city and chemical works, 460–600 killed.
  • 1948  Fukui earthquake with fire, 46,000 buildings and houses lost on June 28.
  • 1949  A fire burned for 18 hours in Chongqing's waterfront and banking district, on 2 September, killed 2,865 people[42] and left more than 100,000 homeless. 7,000 buildings were destroyed.[43]

1950s

1960s

1970s

  • 1973  Second Great Chelsea Fire on October 14 destroyed 18 city blocks.
  • 1974  Chelsea, Massachusetts, a May 24 fire at the American Barrel Company spread to several other businesses in a two block area.

1980s

  • 1981  Arson-initiated firestorm in Lynn, Massachusetts levelled downtown factory area under redevelopment.[53]
  • 1982  Keane fire, Alberta, Canada, consumed more than 500,000 hectares of forest[54][clarification needed]
  • 1982  Village of Lopez, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States, entire business district, including two hotels and the fire department leveled by a wind-whipped fire. It also sparked a 100 acre forest fire nearby.
  • 1983  1983 Buffalo propane explosion in Buffalo, New York kills five firefighters and two others and destroys millions in property.
  • 1983  Dushore, Pennsylvania A fire destroyed two blocks of the historic business district, eight businesses and four homes. The fire was intentionally set.
  • 1984  Oil spill set fire to the shantytown of Vila Socó, Cubatão, São Paulo, Brazil, on 25 February; official death toll is 93 people although speculation is more than 200.[citation needed]
  • 1985  MOVE incident in Philadelphia destroyed 65 houses on Osage Avenue and left 250 homeless. 11 people died in the fire or were shot by police trying to escape.
  • 1985  Annanar forest fire, Portugal, 1,500 km2 destroyed, killing 14.
  • 1986  Chu Ku Tsai village fire, Hong Kong, left 2,000 homeless on Lunar New Year holiday.[44]
  • 1986  Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter fire, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, 150 vessels destroyed, 1,700 homeless and 2 injured on December 25.[44]
  • 1988  Great Lashio Fire, Lashio, Myanmar, killed 134 and destroyed 2,000 buildings.
  • 1988  A fire in Lisbon, Portugal, destroyed 7 blocks of houses (7,500 m2) on August 25.
  • 1988  The Perkasie, Pennsylvania, fire destroyed one and a half blocks of its historic downtown.

1990s

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21st century

2000s

2010s

  • 2010  2010 Thai political protests in Bangkok, burned BEC TV3, CentralWorld and many buildings.
  • 2010  Dhaka fire kills 117 people in the Nimtali area of Old Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • 2011  Devastating fire in Manila, Philippines,[56] leaves about 8,000 people homeless and 9 injured in a Makati squatter community.
  • 2011  A wildfire destroyed over 400 buildings and cost an estimated $750 million in damage in Slave Lake, Alberta.
  • 2012  Hurricane Sandy caused a six-alarm fire that destroyed 121 homes in Breezy Point, Queens, New York.
  • 2013  Yarnell Hill Fire burned over 13 square miles, destroyed over 100 homes,[57] and killed 19 firefighters.[58]
  • 2013  Lac-Mégantic derailment caused an explosion and fire in the town centre that destroyed over 30 buildings and killed 46.[59][60] The event was the deadliest train accident in Canada since 1864.[61]
  • 2013  Boardwalk fire in Seaside Heights & Seaside Park, New Jersey, US. At least 19 buildings destroyed, 30 businesses lost, no major injuries.[62]
  • 2014  Valparaíso wildfire devastated several areas of Valparaíso, Chile, destroying 2,500 homes and killing at least 15 people.
  • 2015  420 homes burned down in Shira, Russia during the 2015 Russian wildfires.
  • 2015  Tianjin Port fire and explosions killed at least 173 people, damaged 300 buildings and over 10,000 vehicles.
  • 2016  Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and buildings, and forced a complete evacuation.[63]
  • 2016  The Gatlinburg Fire began as a wildfire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and spread into the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, killing 14.[citation needed]
  • 2016  A fire started in a ramen shop burned 140 buildings in Itoigawa, Japan.
  • 2017  October 2017 Iberian wildfires. A fire started in Galicia, a province with high risk of wildfire and spread dangerously quick thanks to Hurricane Ophelia (2017) through Spain and Portugal.
  • 2017  In 17 October, separate fires raged across five counties in Northern California, causing extensive damage in Sonoma and Napa Counties. The fires burned 160,000 acres, destroyed 5,700 buildings, and killed 43. The two largest fires were the Tubbs Fire and Atlas Fire. The city of Santa Rosa, California sustained heavy damage, with over 2,800 buildings destroyed.
  • 2018  Kemerovo fire at the Winter Cherry complex mall in Kemerovo, Russia, killed 60 people. The blaze started on the top floor of the four-story complex, and people were seen jumping from windows to escape it.[64][65]
  • 2018  Camp Fire. California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire left at least 81 people dead and torched more than 152,000 acres. The fire burned through the towns of Paradise and Concow and other populated areas including Magelia, CenterVille and Butte Creek Canyons, and destroyed the historic Honey Run Covered Bridge, one of the last three-tier bridges that stood in the United States.
  • 2018  Between 23 July and 25 July, Greece experienced a national tragedy when a huge fire near Marathon in Attika killed 100 people. The inefficient fire service is said to have been a major factor for the disastrous outcome. The fire broke out in a nearby forest and quickly expanded to the surrounding towns.
  • 2019  Another Dhaka fire kills 78 people on 20 February in Churihatta, Chawkbazar area of old Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2020s

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See also

References

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