The Great Fire of London By Riley Clarke

The Great Fire of London began on 2nd September 1666 and lasted just under five days It started in a bakery on Pudding Lane It may have been caused by a spark from the bakers oven falling onto a pile of fuel

As the fire was spreading so quickly most Londoners concentrated on escaping rather than fighting the fire 100,000 people were made homeless Six people were killed

One third of London was destroyed The houses were made from wood and had straw roofs and were built close together 13,200 houses and 87 out of 109 churches were destroyed by the fire including St Pauls Cathedral

There was no fire brigade, so Londoners themselves had to fight the fire helped by local soldiers They used buckets of water, water squirts and fire hooks The fire hooks were used to pull down houses to stop the fire from spreading