In a lot of ways, it was hell on earth.

The people in the city started to wake up a little after midnight to the sounds of

shouting and screaming.

If someone was lucky enough to have a window in their home, they would have been able

to see a strange orange glow radiating inside, and one glance into the street would have

told them why.

Fire

Most historians agree that the blaze had started in the bakery of a man named Thomas

Fariner.

He managed to get his family out their window in the room above his shop, but as the fire

spread, some people were not so lucky.

The sky was a glow, and the noise of panic and alarm was steadily rising.

London was burning.

Despite fire safety measures that were advanced for 1666, it was hard to stop a blaze like that

in a city built mostly of wood and fetch.

What started as a small fire around midnight on September 2 grew into a hungry monster

that devoured most of central London, and was still burning four days later.

When it was over, it had destroyed over 13,000 homes, nearly 100 churches, and left at

least 70,000 people homeless.

It was life-altering, so much so that three and a half centuries later, we're still

talking about the great London fire.

But out of the ashes, something new appeared.

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