The Great Fire of NY -sincerelyfia
http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/great%20fire%20map.jpg
The great Fire of new york took place during December 1835. It started in a warehouse building and assuming with the amount of chemicals and products in the building that caused the fire to spread rapidly. Getting water was a problem considering most of it was probably frozen caused by winter weather conditions. Firefighters from out of state (Philadelphia) had to be brought in to try and stop the rapid fire. The great fire of New York left many people without jobs and homes.
I believe because of the area and building that the dire started in, that made the fire spread. Also the lack of firefighters and hydrant water supply in the city resulted in the massive damage. If New York was stable then and would’ve calculated the large amount of people, area, business and the population in a whole, they would’ve seen that if a fire was to occur, it would be dangerous not to have a large amount of rescue teams.
I chose the picture above because when I first read the title, I automatically assumed the fire was in Brooklyn considering thats where Whitman was usually located. It was very interesting to me when i read that it was actually near wall street. And as we all know today with the World Trade Center, The Wall Street area hasnt really had much good luck with fires etc. This photo also lead to my assumption about the reason why the fire spread so rapidly.
-sincerelyfia
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October 8th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Very true indeed; the financial district is in fact a cluttered area. I wonder why the city requested aid from the fire department(s) in Pennsylvania as oppose to our closer neighboring state, New Jersey…? Interesting stuff.