Place |
Date |
Conflagration |
Notes |
Alexandria, Egypt |
48 BCE |
Burning of the library of Alexandria |
|
Rome, Roman Empire |
64 |
Great Fire of Rome |
Large parts of ancient Rome destroyed |
Bremen, Archbishopric of Bremen, Holy Roman Empire |
11 Sep 1041 |
Fire of Bremen |
most of the old city including the cathedral destroyed |
Lübeck, County of Holstein, Holy Roman Empire |
1157 |
1157 Fire of Lübeck |
Destruction of the city |
Lübeck, County of Holstein, Holy Roman Empire |
1251 |
1251 Fire of Lübeck |
Triggered use of stone as a fire-safe building material |
Lübeck, County of Holstein, Holy Roman Empire |
1276 |
1276 Fire of Lübeck |
Northern part of old city destroyed. Triggered system of fire protection. Last fire until the bombing of WW II |
Munich, Duchy of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire |
1327 |
Fire of Munich |
Ca. 1/3 of the city destroyed |
Berne, Switzerland |
1405 |
1405 Fire of Berne |
600 houses destroyed, over 100 deaths |
Moscow, Tsardom of Russia |
1547 |
1547 Great Fire of Moscow |
2,700 to 3,700 fatalities; 80,000 displaced |
Moscow, Tsardom of Russia |
1571 |
1571 Fire of Moscow |
10,000 to 80,000 casualties |
London, England |
1613 |
Burning of the Globe Theatre[8] |
During performance, cannon misfire caught the thatched roof on fire and the Theatre burned down |
Aachen, Holy Roman Empire |
1656 |
Fire of Aachen |
4,664 houses destroyed, 17 deaths |
Edo, Japan |
1657 |
Great Fire of Meireki |
30,000 to 100,000 fatalities, 60-70% of the city was destroyed |
London, England |
1666 |
Great Fire of London |
13,200 houses and 87 churches were destroyed |
Rostock, Holy Roman Empire |
1677 |
1677 Fire of Rostock |
ca. 700 houses destroyed. Accelerated the city's economic decline at the end of the Hanseatic period |
Copenhagen, Denmark |
1728 |
Copenhagen Fire of 1728 |
1700 houses destroyed (28% of the city), 15,000 people made homeless |
Copenhagen, Denmark |
1795 |
Copenhagen Fire of 1795 |
900 houses destroyed, 6,000 people made homeless |
Kiev |
1811 |
Great Podil fire |
Over 2,000 houses, 12 churches and 3 abbeys razed, 30 deaths |
Moscow, Russian Empire |
1812 |
1812 Fire of Moscow |
Estimated that 75% of the city was destroyed |
Hamburg, German Confederation |
1842 |
Great Fire of Hamburg |
25% of the inner city destroyed |
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
1849 |
Great St. Louis Fire |
430 homes and 23 ships destroyed, but only 3 dead |
Santiago, Chile |
1863 |
Church of the Company Fire |
2,000 to 3,000 fatalities |
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
1864 |
Great Fire of Brisbane |
Over four city blocks burned with over 50 houses razed and dozens of businesses |
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
1864 |
Atlanta Campaign during American Civil War |
About 11/12ths of the city burned: more than 4,000 houses, shops, stores, mills, and depots; only about 450 buildings escaped damage |
Peshtigo, Wisconsin, U.S. |
1871 |
Peshtigo Fire |
Resulted in most deaths by a single fire event in U.S. history |
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
1871 |
Great Chicago Fire |
200 to 300 fatalities; 17,000 buildings were destroyed |
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
1872 |
Boston Fire |
Over 700 buildings destroyed |
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
1874 |
Great Mill Disaster |
18 believed fatalities |
New York City, U.S. |
1876 |
Brooklyn Theater Fire |
273–300 fatalities |
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. |
1900 |
Great Hoboken Pier Fire |
4 ships burned, killing up to 400 people |
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
1901 |
Great Fire of 1901 |
8-hour fire destroyed over 2,300 buildings and displaced almost 10,000 people |
Chicago |
1903 |
Iroquois Theater Fire |
Deadliest single-building fire in U.S. history, with 602 victims |
New York City |
1904 |
Burning of the steamship General Slocum |
Over 1000 fatalities |
San Francisco, California, U.S. |
1906 |
Result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake |
More than 105,000 victims; over 95% of city burned |
Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S. |
1908 |
First Great Chelsea Fire |
1500 buildings destroyed, 11,000 left homeless, when a fire at the Boston Blacking Company was fanned by 40 mph (64 km/h) winds and raced across the Chelsea Rag District, a several-block area of dilapidated wood-frame buildings housing textile and paper scrap. Half the city was destroyed. Same conditions and origin area of the Second Great Chelsea Fire (1973). |
Idaho, U.S. |
1910 |
Massive forest fire known as the Big Burn |
3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) burned out, 75 dead. |
New York City |
1911 |
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire |
Killed 146 garment factory workers; 4th deadliest industrial disaster in U.S. history |
Tokyo, Japan |
1923 |
1923 Great Kantō earthquake |
Fire broke out following the earthquake, half the city was razed and over 100,000 died |
Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
1930 |
Ohio Penitentiary fire |
322 fatalities, 150 seriously injured |
Coventry, England |
1940 |
Coventry Blitz |
Over 800 fatalities; most of the city was destroyed |
Stalingrad, U.S.S.R. |
1942 |
Firestorm resulting from German air bombardment |
955 fatalities (original Soviet estimate) |
Boston |
1942 |
Cocoanut Grove fire |
Nightclub fire killed 492 and injured hundreds more |
Hamburg, Germany |
1943 |
Firestorm resulting from air bombardment |
35,000 to 45,000 victims, 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi) of the city destroyed |
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. |
1944 |
Hartford Circus Fire when tent burned |
168 killed and over 700 injured |
Dresden, Germany |
1945 |
Firestorm resulting from Allied bombing |
Up to 25,000 fatalities during the three-day bombing; 39 km2 (15 sq mi) of the city destroyed |
Tokyo, Japan |
1945 |
Devastating conflagration resulting from B-29 raids during Operation Meetinghouse |
Up to 100,000 fatalities and 41 km2 (16 sq mi) of the city destroyed; similar fires hit the Japanese cities of Kobe and Osaka |
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan |
1945 |
Firestorm developed 30 minutes after the bombing of Hiroshima, but only a conflagration developed at Nagasaki[9] |
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see nuclear explosion) |
Texas City, Texas, U.S. |
1947 |
Texas City disaster |
Cargo ship Grandcamp caught fire and exploded, destroying most of the harbor and killing 600 people |
Seaside Heights & Seaside Park, New Jersey, USA |
1955 |
The Freeman Pier Fire |
At least 30 businesses lost, 50 residents evacuated, no major injuries[10][11][12] |
Chicago |
1958 |
Our Lady of the Angels School Fire |
95 fatalities, 100 wounded |
Brussels, Belgium |
1967 |
L'Innovation Department Store fire |
322 victims, 150 wounded |
Gulf of Tonkin |
1967 |
USS Forrestal fire |
Fire aboard aircraft carrier during Vietnam War, killed 134 sailors and injured 161 |
Tasmania, Australia |
1967 |
1967 Tasmanian fires |
Severe wildfires that claimed 62 lives, 900 injured, displaced 7,000, and destroyed 264,000 hectares (2,640 km2) of land including 1293 homes |
Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S. |
1973 |
Second Great Chelsea Fire |
18 city blocks destroyed when a firestorm raced across the Chelsea Rag District, a several-block area of dilapidated wood-frame buildings housing textile and paper scrap. The same conditions and origin area of the First Great Chelsea Fire (1908) |
Southgate, Kentucky, U.S. |
1977 |
Beverly Hills Supper Club fire |
165 fatalities |
Minneapolis |
1982 |
Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire |
Two people convicted of arson in setting fire to a Donaldson's department store, which in turn destroyed a full city block of downtown Minneapolis |
San Juanico, Mexico |
1984 |
San Juanico Disaster |
Fire and explosions at a liquid petroleum gas tank farm killed 500-600 people and 5,000-7,000 others suffered severe burns; local town of San Juan Ixhuatepec devastated |
Bradford, England |
1985 |
Bradford City stadium fire |
52 victims |
London |
1987 |
King's Cross fire |
Conflagration in London Underground station killed 31 people |
Dabwali, India |
1995 |
Dabwali tent fire |
540 deaths[13] |
New York City |
2001 |
World Trade Center fires |
2,806 victims as fires caused both twin towers of the World Trade Center to collapse, following impacts by hijacked airliners |
West Warwick, Rhode Island, U.S. |
2003 |
The Station nightclub fire |
100 killed and over 200 injured in fire at rock concert |
Asunción, Paraguay |
2004 |
Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire |
Almost 400 fatalities |
Hemel Hempstead, England |
2005 |
Hertfordshire oil storage terminal fire |
The largest fire in peacetime Britain |
Greece |
2007 |
2007 Greek forest fires |
84 victims in over 3,000 wildfires destroying 670,000 acres (2,700 km2) of land |
Victoria, Australia |
2009 |
Black Saturday bushfires |
173 victims in over 400 separate bushfires which burned 450,000 hectares (4,500 km2) |
Near Haifa, Israel |
2010 |
Mount Carmel forest fire (2010) |
44 victims, 12,000 acres (49 km2) of bush/forest destroyed |
Comayagua, Honduras |
2012 |
Comayagua prison fire |
382 fatalities |
Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan |
2012 |
2012 Pakistan garment factory fires |
About 315 fatalities, over 250 injured in 2 fires on a single day |
Santa Maria, Brazil |
2013 |
Kiss nightclub fire |
At least 232 fatalities and 117 hospitalized[14] |
Seaside Heights & Seaside Park, New Jersey, U.S. |
2013 |
Boardwalk fire |
At least 19 buildings destroyed, 30 businesses lost, no major injuries[15] |