Conflagration

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Chelsea, Massachusetts, Oct. 14, 1973, The Second Great Chelsea Fire destroys 18 city blocks

A conflagration is one term for a great and destructive fire[1] that threatens human life, animal life, health, 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.

Definitions

Look up conflagration or blaze in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • 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. Hot gaseous products of combustion move upward, causing the influx of more dense cold air to the combustion zone. 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.

Industrial conflagrations include fires at oil refineries, such as the 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire.

Conflagrations can occur in forests or other wilderness areas, known as Wildfire.

The conflagration of a building is known as a structure fire.

Notable examples

Main article: List of historic fires
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
Rome 64 Great Fire of Rome
Alexandria, Egypt 48BC Burning of the library of Alexandria
Moscow 1547 Great Fire of Moscow, 1547 2,700 to 3,700 fatalities; 80,000 displaced
Moscow 1571 Fire of Moscow, 1571 10,000 to 80,000 casualties
London 1613 Burning of the Globe Theatre[5] During the Henry VIII (Play), a cannon fire lit the thatched roof on fire burning down the Theatre
Edo 1657 Great Fire of Meireki 30,000 to 100,000 fatalities, 60-70% of the city was destroyed
London 1666 Great Fire of London 13,200 houses and 87 churches were destroyed
Moscow 1812 Fire of Moscow (1812) Estimated that 75% of the city was destroyed
Hamburg 1842 Great Fire of Hamburg 25% of the inner-city was destroyed
St. Louis, Missouri 1849 Great St. Louis Fire 430 homes and 23 ships were destroyed, but only 3 people died
Santiago, Chile 1863 Church of the Company Fire 2,000 to 3,000 fatalities
Atlanta 1864 Atlanta Campaign during American Civil War More than 4,000 houses, including dwellings, shops, stores, mills and depots were burned; about eleven-twelfths of the city. Only about 450 buildings escaped damage
Peshtigo, Wisconsin 1871 Peshtigo Fire Resulted in most deaths by a single fire event in U.S. history
Chicago 1871 Great Chicago Fire 200 to 300 fatalities; 17,000 buildings were destroyed
Boston 1872 Boston Fire Over 700 buildings were destroyed
Minneapolis 1874 Great Mill Disaster 18 believed fatalities
New York City 1876 Brooklyn Theater Fire 273 – 300 fatalities
Hoboken, New Jersey 1900 Great Hoboken Pier Fire 4 ships burned, killing up to 400 people
Jacksonville, Florida 1901 Great Fire of 1901 An eight-hour fire which 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 1906 Result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake More than 105,000 victims; over 95% of city burned
Chelsea, Massachusetts 1908 First Great Chelsea Fire 1500 buildings destroyed, 11,000 left homeless, when a fire at the Boston Blacking Company was fanned by 40MPH 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 1910 Massive forest fire known as the Big Burn 3 million acres burned out
New York City 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Killed 146 garment factory workers; 4th deadliest industrial disaster in US history
Columbus, Ohio 1930 Ohio Penitentiary fire 322 fatalities, 150 seriously injured
Coventry 1940 Coventry Blitz Over 800 fatalities, most of the city was destroyed
Stalingrad 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 1943 Firestorm resulting from air bombardment 35,000 to 45,000 victims, and 12km² of the city was destroyed
Hartford, Connecticut 1944 Hartford Circus Fire Killed 168 and injured over 700 in circus tent fire
Dresden 1945 Firestorm resulting from Allied bombing Up to 25,000 fatalities during the three-day bombing; 39km² of the city was destroyed by the fire
Tokyo 1945 Firestorm resulting from B-29 raids during Operation Meetinghouse About 100,000 victims and 41km² of the city was destroyed; similar firestorms hit the Japanese cities of Kobe and Osaka following air bombardments
Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945 A Firestorm developed 30 minutes after the bombing of Hiroshima, but only a conflagration developed at Nagasaki[6] (see nuclear explosion) Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Texas City 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[7][8][9]
Chicago 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School Fire 95 fatalities, 100 wounded
Brussels 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 of land including 1293 homes
Chelsea, Massachusetts 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 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire 165 fatalities
Minneapolis 1982 Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire Two people were convicted of arson, after 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 was devastated
Bradford, England 1985 Bradford City stadium fire 52 victims
London 1987 King's Cross fire Conflagration on London Underground station killed 31 people
Dabwali, India 1995 Dabwali tent fire 540 deaths[10]
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 2003 The Station nightclub fire 100 killed, 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 km2) of land
Victoria, Australia 2009 Black Saturday bushfires 173 victims in over 400 separate bushfires which burned 450,000 hectares
Near Haifa, Israel 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire (2010) 44 victims, 12,000 acres (49 km2) 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 1 day
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 2013 Kiss nightclub fire at least 232 fatalities, 117 hospitalized[11]
Seaside Heights & Seaside Park, New Jersey, USA 2013 2013 Seaside Park, New Jersey fire at least 19 buildings destroyed, 30 businesses lost, no major injuries[12]

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. ↑ Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
  6. ↑ Glasstone, Philip J.; Dolan, eds. (1977), ""Chapter VII — Thermal Radiation and Its Effects", The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (Third ed.), United States Department of Defense and the Energy Research and Development Administration, pp. 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. 1977 Glasstone & Dolan pg 304.
  7. ↑ The Freeman Pier Fire- 1955- Seaside
  8. ↑ Seaside Begins Rebuilding as Fire Ashes Cool
  9. ↑ Fire Loss High, Insurance Low | Concessions Listed
  10. ↑ Item 55 in Large Building Fires and Subsequent Code Changes
  11. ↑ Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills At Least 232 People
  12. ↑ Seaside Businesses Impacted by the Boardwalk Fire

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