Conflagration

Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA, Oct. 14, 1973, the Second Great Chelsea Fire destroying 18 city blocks

A conflagration is a large and destructive fire^[1] that threatens human life, animal life, health, and/or property. It may also be described as a blaze or simply a (large) fire. A conflagration can be accidentally begun, naturally caused (wildfire), or intentionally created (arson). Arson can be for fraud, murder, sabotage or diversion, or due to a person's pyromania. A firestorm can form as a consequence of a very large fire, in which the central column of rising heated air induces strong inward winds, which supply oxygen to the fire. Conflagrations can cause casualties including deaths or injuries from burns, trauma due to collapse of structures and attempts to escape, and smoke inhalation.

Firefighting is the practice of attempting to extinguish a conflagration, protect life and property, and minimize damage and injury. One of the goals of fire prevention is to avoid conflagrations. When a conflagration is extinguished, there is often a fire investigation to determine the cause of the fire.

Definitions

• a destructive fire, usually an extensive one^[2]

• a very intense and uncontrolled fire^[3]
• a large disastrous fire^[4]

Causes and types

Forest fire

During a conflagration a significant movement of air and combustion products occurs.^[5] Hot gaseous products of combustion move upward, causing the influx of more dense cold air to the combustion zone. Sometimes, the influx is so intense that the fire grows into a firestorm.
       Inside a building, the intensity of gas exchange depends on the size and location of openings in walls and floors, the ceiling height, and the amount and characteristics of the combustible materials.

Types

• Industrial conflagrations include fires at oil refineries, such as the 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire.
• One or several fire(s) in forests or other wilderness areas, i.e. wildfire(s), may grow up into or unite to a conflagration.
• An urban conflagration is defined as a "large, destructive fire that spreads beyond natural or artificical barriers; it can be expected to result in large monetary loss and may or may not include fatalities...An urban conflagration moves beyond a block and destroys whole sections of a city."^[6]
• In some ships, a large uncontained fire may quickly lead to a ship conflagration.^[7]
• The conflagration of a building is known as a structure fire.
• An asteroid more than 4.3 miles (6.9 km) in diameter colliding with the Earth, spewing out enough ejecta to cause a global conflagration.

Notable examples

Ostankino Tower fire

A fire in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Beijing Television Cultural Center fire

A fire in a school in Aberdeen, Washington

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 km^2) 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 km^2 (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 km^2 (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 km^2 (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 km^2) 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 km^2) of land
Victoria, Australia	2009	Black Saturday bushfires	173 victims in over 400 separate bushfires which burned 450,000 hectares (4,500 km^2)
Near Haifa, Israel	2010	Mount Carmel forest fire (2010)	44 victims, 12,000 acres (49 km^2) 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]

References

1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., "Conflagration"
2. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
3. WordNet 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
4. Merriam Websters' Dictionary
5. "Conflagration". tititudorancea.com.
6. "Disaster Planning and Control".
7. http://www.doncio.navy.mil/chips/ArticleDetails.aspx?ID=2487
8. "The First Globe". Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The Shakespeare Globe Trust. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
9. Glasstone, Samuel; Dolan, Philip J., eds. (1977), "Chapter VII — Thermal Radiation and Its Effects" (PDF), The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (Third ed.), United States Department of Defense and the Energy Research and Development Administration, p. 304, Nagasaki probably did not furnish sufficient fuel for the development of a fire storm as compared to the many buildings on the flat terrain at Hiroshima.
10. Salvini, Emil R. (June 30, 2009). "The Freeman Pier Fire- 1955- Seaside". Tales of the New Jersey Shore and its Environs.
11. "Seaside begins rebuilding as fire ashes cool". The Star-Ledger (Seaside Heights). 1955.
12. "Fire Loss High, Insurance Low; Concessions Listed". Seaside Heights. 1955.
13. Arnold, Jim (April 7, 2005), Large Building Fires and Subsequent Code Changes (PDF), Clark County Department of Development Services, Building Division, p. 18 (Item 55), archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2008
14. Barbassa, Juliana; Sigaja, Marco (January 27, 2013). "Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills At Least 232 People". The Huffington Post.
15. Double Down (September 12, 2013). "Seaside Businesses Impacted by the Boardwalk Fire". WKXW, New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio.

External links

• Conflagration on map (AccidentMap.com Accident on map)