9781422280256

This painting by Henryk Siemiradzki depicts the burning of Rome, supposedly set by Nero.

London’s Burning Three years earlier, another city of the Roman empire—London, capital of the Roman province of Britannia—went up in flames when a rebel British queen, Boudicca, attacked the city and burned it. After this, in CE 63, the Romans decided to appoint vigiles to look out for fires in London. London kept its vigiles until the Romans abandoned Britannia in around CE 426, returning to Rome to defend it against attacks by barbarian tribes. Unfortunately, the vigiles departed with the Romans, and London had no proper fire service for another 1,250 years. In 1212, London Bridge burned down. The consequences were severe. Not only were 12,000 people reported to have died, but London Bridge was at that time the only bridge across the Thames River, which runs through the city. The burning of London Bridge was known as the Great Fire of London until an even greater and much more damaging fire broke out in September 1666. At that time, London still had no fire service—the capital’s first fire brigade was not formed until 1680. This great fire burned for over four days, and the flames burned down most of London’s big buildings, including Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and destroyed around 13,000 homes. The flames could be seen nearly

P utting O ut F ires : F irefighters

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