The Great Fire of London倫敦大火

張寧

The Great Fire of Lonndon is a fascinating story from history; without it. London would be avery different place today.The Great Fire of London facts

London was a big city in 1666. Half a million people lived there.

The houses were made of wood. and the lanesl between them were very narrow.

The fire started on Sunday， September 2nd in the baker's shop of Thomas Farynor， bakerof King Charles II. in Pudding Lane. His ovens were on overnight， making bread. and somehowthey caused a fire. In the early hours of the morning the choking 2 smoke woke him up. Herescued his family and ran outside. as the shop burned down. His maid3 was not so lucky， andshe did not escape4.

The summer of 1666 had been very hot and dry， and the fire soon spread.

It was indeed the mayors whom many blame for not stopping the spread of the Great Fireof London. It was standard practice at that time to demolis 6 houses on the path of the flames.creating "fire-breaks". The mayor refused to do this though， as he was worried about the cost ofrebuilding. When he first saw the fire he is reported to have said that it could soon be put out.

It is true that several fire engines fell into the Thames while they were being filled withwater.

It was the diarist Samuel Pepys who realized how great the threat7 was. and took the newsto the king.

King Charles took commands at once， ordering the demolition9 0f houses， and the settingup of fire posts7 extra fire fighters， and fire fighting equipment. He even joined in the firefighting himself.

Even with the king's efforts. the fire burned for four days， before the fire-breaks. and thewind changing direction. stopped the spread.

Amazingly， not many people died in the Great Fire of London. Some people say sixteen，other people say only six.

After the fire， the king ordered that London should be rebuilt. with buildings made frombricks and stone. Christopher Wren was the architectlo in charge. It took ten years to rebuild.

倫敦大火是歷史上很有意思的故事;沒有它，倫敦如今將是一個完全不同的地方。倫敦大火的實際情況

倫敦在1666年是一個大城市。有50萬人住在那里。

那些房子是用木頭做的，它們之間的小巷也很窄。

大火發(fā)生在9月2日，星期日，起始于倫敦布丁巷國王查理二世的面包師托馬斯·法里諾的面包店。他做著面包的烤箱開了一夜，不知怎么引起了火災(zāi)。清晨，令人窒息的濃煙把他弄醒了。在他的店鋪被燒毀的時候，他救了家人，跑了出去。他的女仆沒有那么幸運，她沒能逃過一劫。

1666年的夏天又熱又干燥，火勢很快就蔓延開了。

確實有許多人指責市長沒有阻止倫敦大火的蔓延。當時的標準做法是拆除火焰路徑上的房屋，建立“防火帶”。但市長拒絕這樣做，因為他擔心重建的成本。據(jù)報道，當他第一次看到火時，他說火很快就能被撲滅。

真實情況是，有幾輛消防車在注水時掉進了泰晤士河。

是日記作家塞繆爾·佩皮斯意識到這場火災(zāi)的威脅有多大，并把這個消息告訴了國王。

查理國王立即接管了指揮權(quán)，命令拆除房屋，建立消防哨所，并召集額外的消防隊員和調(diào)集消防設(shè)備。他甚至也參加了救火。

即使有國王的努力，大火還是燃燒了四天，直到防火帶的完成以及風向的改變，才阻止了火勢的蔓延。

令人驚訝的是，在倫敦大火中死亡的人并不多。有些人說是16個，其他人則說只有6個。

大火發(fā)生后，國王下令重建倫敦，用磚石建造建筑。克里斯托弗·雷恩是負責重建工作的建筑師。重建倫敦花了十年的時間。

（英語原文選自：history-for-kids.com）