Talk:Great Fire of New York

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Why is this "America's first major disaster"? The 1776 fire in NYC burned a comparable amount of buildings and burned for about as long, with less sophisticated equipment, and during wartime. I suggest the reference be removed.Shoreranger 01:29, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Propose moving this article to Great Fire of New York (1835)

Since there is an article Great Fire of New York (1776), we may as well title this article Great Fire of New York (1835) and make Great Fire of New York a disambig page.

--Richard 20:05, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't see why. This one was the last and greatest. WWI was The Great War until WWII came along and, as in that case, there is no need to change this article's name unless a future greater one burns out the whole East Side or something. Jim.henderson 20:15, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Support: I wrote the bulk of both articles. I always thought the 1776 fire was the more important of the two and then wondered in here surprised to find that 1835 caught the title. They are both very significant. I'm not entirely comfortable with the argument of the "last great New York fire" being in 1835. If I remember correctly there was a fire six years ago that dwarfed both of these by any measure. Americasroof 20:58, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Amendment: I shouldn't brag about writing the 1776 article. I wrote a lot about the Battle of Long Island and set up the New York Revolutionary War stuff. The 1776 article was mostly written by others. Americasroof 21:02, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, any measure except percentage of town destroyed. No big rich-country city has had such a major fraction burnt since April 1906 except in war. But if fraction were the criterion then the fire that turned Brantwood, Wisconsin into a ghost town in the 1960s would qualify. Anyway, you've got me convinced. Wait a couple patriotic days and if nobody else squawks, go ahead. Jim.henderson 23:32, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Done.Shoreranger 16:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Undone. When there are precisely two articles with the same title, no disambiguation page is needed because disambiguation is more efficiently handled with dablinks at the top of each article. Which page gets the parenthetical added to its title is debatable, of course. It's hardly important in this case, considering the few links to these pages, but the 1776 fire can be given the default undisambiguated title if someone feels strongly enough about it to do the paperwork. If ever there's an article on a third Great Fire of New York, at that point we'd need a disambiguation page. —Kevin Myers 03:34, 14 December 2007 (UTC)