Speaker 1: Fire, the blazing inferno, the destruction of great cities, buildings,
Speaker 1: and most importantly of people's homes and lives. What we've
Speaker 1: seen this week in California has been really heartrending. But
Speaker 1: we're not alone. Mother Nature has left ashes and ruining
Speaker 1: every century. We try to figure out who to blame.
Speaker 1: But there's more to it than that. I'm Patty Steele
Speaker 1: looking into the fire. Next on the backstory. We're back
Speaker 1: with the backstory. We've all been fixated on the horrific
Speaker 1: fires out in California. Thousands of homes and businesses lost,
Speaker 1: people without their homes. At last count, five lives lost,
Speaker 1: but that's not a true telling since fires are still
Speaker 1: burning at this moment and almost two hundred thousand people
Speaker 1: have been ordered to flee the flames. It's devastating. Fire
Speaker 1: is unlike so many other hugely destructive events. No one
Speaker 1: to blame but mother nature. Although there are narratives just
Speaker 1: about arson, but also the impact of climate change and
Speaker 1: the politicians that allegedly didn't prepare for this kind of catastrophe.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, this is certainly not an unprecedented event.
Speaker 1: Fire is almost unmanageable. It pops up rereeks, havoc and
Speaker 1: moves on. We all like to find someone to blame,
Speaker 1: and frequently there is someone or something to point a
Speaker 1: finger at, but it's definitely nothing new. There was the
Speaker 1: fire that destroyed the Library of Alexandria around forty eight BC.
Speaker 1: It was a crazy loss of history. The library held
Speaker 1: the knowledge of the ancient world, stored in half a
Speaker 1: million scrolls from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, and India. Some
Speaker 1: believe Julius Caesar was to blame. There was the massive
Speaker 1: fire in Rome in sixty four AD, which burned for
Speaker 1: almost a week and completely destroyed that city. Emperor Nero
Speaker 1: blamed the Christians, but folks who saw him watching the
Speaker 1: inferno from his palace claimed he was smiling and playing
Speaker 1: his fiddle, and they blamed him. Ultimately, the Christians were
Speaker 1: blamed and were publicly punished. Some were torn apart by dogs,
Speaker 1: others crucified, many burned alive. This included Saint Perpetua, who
Speaker 1: wrote in her diary about what she went through as
Speaker 1: she prepared for trial. She says her father begged her
Speaker 1: to disavow her Christian beliefs, but she said she couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. She wrote. He kissed my feet and begged
Speaker 1: me have pity on your father. If I am worthy.
Speaker 1: I've brought you up to this blossoming youth, and I've
Speaker 1: preferred you to your all. Your brothers. Look upon them,
Speaker 1: your mother and Anne, look upon your son, who will
Speaker 1: not survive you. Give up your resolution, she replied, whatever
Speaker 1: God wishes will be done at this tribunal. When convicted,
Speaker 1: she and her family were condemned to be eaten by
Speaker 1: wild animals. Then sixteen hundred years later, there was the
Speaker 1: Great Fire of London. It was sixteen sixty six and
Speaker 1: it raced through the city during the Black Plague and
Speaker 1: destroyed over thirteen thousand homes, leaving one hundred thousand homeless.
Speaker 1: The fire gutted the majority of the medieval city and
Speaker 1: damaged iconic churches like Saint Paul's Cathedral. One writer, escaping
Speaker 1: in his night shirt in a cart, wrote words that'll
Speaker 1: remind you of scenes from California this week. He said, Lord,
Speaker 1: to see how the streets and the highways were crowded
Speaker 1: with people running and riding and trying to get carts
Speaker 1: at any price to fetch away things. Rebuilding London took
Speaker 1: over thirty years, but the city was rebuilt with beautiful
Speaker 1: stone buildings and wider streets, and the London fire also
Speaker 1: gave birth to two brand new industries, modern property insurance
Speaker 1: and fire brigades. Was there somebody to blame, of course,
Speaker 1: It started the home of a baker, Thomas Ferriner, on
Speaker 1: Putting Lane. It probably was from a spark from his hearth.
Speaker 1: At first authorities tried to accuse the Catholics of arson,
Speaker 1: but finally decided the fire was caused by the hand
Speaker 1: of God, a strong wind and a very dry season,
Speaker 1: and that spark from the hearth. Now we come to
Speaker 1: the US. In New York City, the Great Fire of
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty five happened when a warehouse caught on fire.
Speaker 1: As we've seen in California, powerful winds fanned the flames,
Speaker 1: leveling city blocks and setting part of the frozen East
Speaker 1: River on fire as turpentine leaked into the water. But
Speaker 1: that fire led to the building of an aqueduct in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty seven that brought in twelve million gallons of
Speaker 1: water a day, which gave firemen what they needed and
Speaker 1: revolutionized American water systems. The Great Chicago Fire of eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy one was a massive fire burned down seventeen thousand buildings.
Speaker 1: The blaze only lasted three days and didn't spread very fast,
Speaker 1: unlike the current la fires, but it still killed about
Speaker 1: three hundred people. Problem is it happened in late autumn,
Speaker 1: so thousands as were left without shelter once winter arrived.
Speaker 1: Who was to blame for this one? Well, it broke
Speaker 1: out in the evening, probably in the barn of the
Speaker 1: Oleria family when it was reported. Neighbors rushed to try
Speaker 1: to save O'Leary's home, but strong winds caused their houses
Speaker 1: to light up, and then the fire headed toward downtown.
Speaker 1: A lot of folks still blamed O'Leary's cows. Complicating the firefight.
Speaker 1: Because of another fire the day before, the fire brigade
Speaker 1: in Chicago was exhausted, so warning signals and info weren't
Speaker 1: given much attention. Another complication or is the river also
Speaker 1: caught fire from wooden boats, driftwood, and greasy debris. It
Speaker 1: spread further into the city and along the Polk Street Bridge,
Speaker 1: which was destroyed and still hasn't been rebuilt. Finally, as
Speaker 1: far as huge wildfire goes, there was the Great Fire
Speaker 1: of nineteen ten in Idaho and Montana, which burned get this,
Speaker 1: twenty million acres, probably started by embers from locomotives. Hurricane
Speaker 1: force winds turned thousands of smaller fires into a monster.
Speaker 1: Entire towns were wiped out, and fire native or firewhirlds
Speaker 1: led to trees being sucked from the ground, roots and
Speaker 1: all and turning into flying blowtorches. Eighty six people died,
Speaker 1: mostly firefighters on the front line. At first, a media
Speaker 1: was blamed, but later on scientists said it was caused
Speaker 1: by an incredibly hot, dry summer and not a meteor.
Speaker 1: So as painful as today's fires are, we see we're
Speaker 1: not alone. We also see that these events can inspire
Speaker 1: innovation and change. Is there something to learn from these catastrophes,
Speaker 1: of course, but in every case we have to learn
Speaker 1: the how and the why and then use that knowledge
Speaker 1: to move forward. Hope you're enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: and feel free to dm me if you have a
Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The
Speaker 1: pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.