London's Burning In 1666, London was a city just waiting to burn.0:08
Narrow streets were overcrowded with buildings, open fires and candles burned inside homes and businesses.0:27
A long hot summer had just come to an end and the wood built city was bone dry.0:35
On the Evening of Saturday 1st September, Thomas Farriner, baker to King Charles II, went to bed without properly putting out the fire in one of his ovens.0:42
Sometime after 1am on Sunday morning, a spark from the fire's embers ignited some straw on the bakery floor.0:53
Flames quickly engulfed the house in Pudding Lane.1:02
Neighbours attempted to put out the fire, but the flames were too fierce.1:05
The fire began to spread.1:10
At 4am, London's mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth, was woken up.1:13
He was advised to have all the neighbouring houses demolished as this would stop the fire spreading.1:19
But the mayor refused to give the order.1:25
He paid dearly for this decision.1:28
By early morning, 300 houses were on fire and winds from the east were causing the fire to spread with frightening speed.1:31
Over the next three days and nights, the fire raged out of control.1:40
It took until the evening of Wednesday 5th September, when the strong winds finally died down, to bring the fire under control.1:46
When the fire was totally Extinguished on Thursday 6th September, five sixths of the heart of the city had been destroyed.1:54
Over 13,000 houses, 87 churches and four bridges, along with many important buildings such as St Paul's Cathedral, were gone.2:03
Astonishingly, however, it is thought that fewer than 10 people died in the blaze.2:14
If you visit London today, you can see a tall column called the Monument commemorating the Great Fire.2:20
It stands at 202ft tall, the distance from its location to the site of Thomas Farriner's bakery.2:28
So if it fell over in the right direction, it would point to the exact spot where the fire started.2:36
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