A chance turn of wind has finally brought the fire, which has raged across the capital city for the last four days, under control. The river Thames is still littered with small boats filled with people who took to the water to save themselves and their belongings from the flames.
A cloud of ash hangs over the city blocking the sun and making the streets as dark as the moods of the people who used to live there. People are crying over their lost houses and pets and a few cry for the people that were killed. Luckily it seems that only about 8 people died in the fire which destroyed about 13,000 houses and 84 churches.
The fire started in Pudding lane in the shop of Mr. Thomas Farriner, who is the king’s baker. He says.
‘It was Alice. Miss Alice Sale my maid. I went to bed at around midnight and had to get up again at 5, so I asked Alice to put out the fires in the ovens. She must have forgotten. She has sometimes in the past and I have told her off about it. It is so dangerous. I am surprised it took this long with the amount of times she has forgotten.’
Mr Farriner went on to defend the maid, who was the first to die in the fire.
‘We had both worked hard that day and we were exhausted.’
The fast spread of the fire has been blamed mostly on the wooden houses being built too close together, but some people are pointing fingers at the Lord Mayor Mr. Thomas Bloodworth. This is what he had to say.
‘I was wrong. I underestimated the fire. I told people not to tear down other houses to try and stop it but I definitely did not say that a woman could piss it out.’
When asked about the plans for the future he said.
‘We are already speaking to architects. Christopher Wren has some really good ideas about how to rebuild the city and, of course, St Paul’s cathedral.
St. Paul’s cathedral was the 4th St Paul’s on the site. It was built after a fire destroyed the 3rd one in 1087 which also destroyed much of the city.
Insurance companies are crying in their morning coffees about how much they will have to pay for the houses burned down. They are talking about starting a fire service to protect the houses insured with them in the future.
The only good thing to come from this disaster is that it seems that most of the streets associated with the Great Plague have been wiped out so we can hope for an end to this horrible disease.
