1. The fire of the Great Library of Alexandria
THE Library of Alexandria was part of the Mouseion (“Temple of the Muses”) in Alexandria. It contained untold wealth: the knowledge of the ancient world, stored in half a million scrolls from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt and India. Scholars from around the world traveled there to study and work, including Euclid and Ptolemy. The library was built during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter, general of Alexander The Great and the founder of Ptolemaic Egypt, in 283 BC.
Alexandria Lighthouse
The destruction of the library was so dramatic that it was immortalized by playwrights from William Shakespeare– “Play the conqueror as much as you want, powerful Caesar … But neither you nor any other barbarian have the right to destroy a single human thought!” » – to Tom Stoppard: “The enemy…burned the great library of Alexandria without even a fine for all this is overdue!”
The fire that destroyed it is the subject of controversy. Plutarch states Julius Caesar started the fire when he set fire to his ships in the harbor as they attempted to take control of the city in 48 BC. built a church on the site. No matter who is to blame, priceless scrolls containing ancient knowledge have been lost to history forever.
2. The Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London, 1666. St. Paul’s Cathedral is shown engulfed in flames near Tower Wharf.
The 2020 California wildfires are not the first conflagration to strike during a pandemic; The Great Fire of London ran through town during the Black Plague and destroyed more than 13,000 homes, leaving 100,000 people homeless. From September 2 to 6, 1666, the fire ravaged most of the medieval city and damaged iconic buildings like St. Paul’s Cathedral. People fled with as much possessions as they could carry, including the chronicler Samuel Pepys, who escaped at 4 a.m. in a nightgown in a cart, writing: “Lord! to see how the streets and roads are filled with people running and riding, and taking carts, at any rate, to fetch things.
Rebuilding London took more than 30 years, but Sir Christopher Wren’s town planning is still visible today in the city’s stone buildings and wider streets, which replaced narrow lanes and wooden structures destroyed by the fire. The Fire of London also gave rise to two entirely new industries: modern home insurance And firefighters.
3. The Great Fire of New York
New York buildings, seen from Exchange Place, in ruins after a fire destroyed much of the Lower East Side, 1835.
THE Great fire of 1835 occurred in the middle of a cholera epidemic In New York City. On the freezing night of December 16, 1835, a downtown warehouse caught fire. High winds fanned the flames, leveling more than 17 city blocks and setting part of the frozen East River on fire as turpentine leaked from warehouses onto the water.
The city’s water supply was unfortunately insufficient to slow the destruction. New York City’s population has increased by 60 percent over the past decade thanks to vibrant trade along the border. Erie Canaland access to adequate sanitation and clean drinking water was lacking.
From its ashes rose an innovation: the construction of the Croton Aqueduct in May 1837. “It yielded 12 million gallons per day, which gave the firefighters what they needed to fight the flames and provided a pure source for the homeowners and businesses – something desperately needed in a modern world.” city grappling with a persistent pandemic,” says Dan Levy, author of the upcoming book. Manhattan Phoenix. “It revolutionized America’s water systems and became a training ground for an entire generation of American engineers, who went on to create the nation’s aqueducts, railroads, and canals.”
4. The Great Chicago Fire
A view of downtown Chicago following the Great Chicago Fire, October 1871.
THE Great Chicago Fire lasted from October 8 to 10, 1871. It left 300 dead and more than 90,000 homeless. A third of the city was destroyed. “Because Chicago was at the center of the national telegraph network, recently connected to Europe, the Great Fire was the first instant international news event,” says Carl S. Smith, author of The Great Chicago Fire: The destruction and resurrection of an iconic American city.
The “large reconstruction” which occurred following the fire transformed Chicago and made a new and powerful business center. More than $10 million was returned to the community. “This was quickly accompanied by significant capital investments”, explains Smith, “because the crucial position of Chicago between the natural resources of the American hinterland and the appetite of consumers – for cereals, meat and meat a wide range of other products and goods – from the East and Europe made its reconstruction a high priority and a wise investment for investors. The fire became essential to Chicago’s image as a “embodiment of the irresistible force of modernity in America.”
5. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
THE Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 1911, killed 146 Triangle Waist Company employees who were trapped in the Asch Building in New York’s Greenwich Village. Many jumped when they die in twos or threes or perished en masse through locked exits. “Everyone who jumped was killed. It was a horrible sight,” said an eyewitness. Frances Perkins. Most of the victims were young women and immigrants, many of whom had come to the United States in hopes of a better life.
The fire united unions and public outcry over the incident prompted the national government to take action to protect workers, leading to new workplace safety laws. Perkins was so outraged that she dedicated her life to defending workers’ rights. She later helped establish the Factories Commission of Inquiry and eventually became Franklin D.Roosevelt Secretary of Labor during the New dealtransforming the workplace landscape in America.
6. The Reichstag fire
The plenary hall of the Reichstag in Berlin, Germany, burned down on February 28, 1933.
Arsonists set fire to the Reichstag, the seat of the German parliament, on February 27, 1933. Adolf Hitlera promising politician who had just been appointed Reich Chancellor a month earlier, they blamed communists for starting the fire.
“The Reichstag fire was crucial to Hitler’s consolidation of power,” says Benjamin Hett, professor and author of Burn the Reichstag. “This provided a pretext for emergency legislation – known informally as Reichstag fire decree-which tore the Democratic Party apart Weimar Constitution separated and end freedom of speech and assembly, secrecy of mail and freedom from arrest without charge.
Somewhat less well known, but crucially important, is that the decree allowed Hitler’s Reich government to take power over any German federal state that did not “maintain order.” Some state governments were in the hands of determined opponents of the project. Nazis, so this power was essential,” explains Hett. To this day, the identity of the arsonists remains controversial.
7. Cuyahoga River Fire in Cleveland
John D. Rockefeller The first oil refinery was built along a creek that flowed into the Cuyahoga River. While Rockefeller Standard oil dumped gasoline into the river, it also served as Cleveland’s sewer. The river burned nine times between 1868 and 1952.
The fire that broke out on June 22, 1969, was relatively minor compared to previous fires, but with one crucial difference: “Many rivers were severely polluted during the 1960s, but the Cuyahoga River caught fire just as the national media began to denounce him. treating the environment as a serious problem and at a time when the domestic public was increasingly recognizing the urgent need to protect the environment,” says John H. Hartig, Ph.D., Great Lakes science and policy advisor , International Association for Great Lakes Research.
“The Cuyahoga Fire and other environmental disasters like 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill have become national symbols of industrial indifference and weak public regulation. The environmental movement needed a rallying point and the burning Cuyahoga River became its model,” Hartig said. Time the magazine featured the Cuyahoga River in the same issue as the landing And That of Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick scandaldelivering the story to eight million readers.
Public reaction to the 1969 Cuyahoga River Fire helped create the Environmental Protection Agency and critical environmental legislation such as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, the 1972 Drinking water lawthe United States-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement of 1972 and the Agreement of 1973 Endangered Species Act.
