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Rh London were without any mechanical appliances and were practically helpless to stem that terrific conflagration, which devastated their city and consumed 13,200 houses covering an area of 436 acres, the ancient cathedral of St. Paul and thirty-six other churches, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, hospitals and four prisons, in which, incidentally, several persons lost their lives. The value of the property destroyed amounted to nearly sixty million dollars, and it undoubtedly served to impress upon the public mind the necessity of some proper system of fire prevention. Immediately afterwards the city was divided into four districts, each under the control of a special officer possessed of authority to take charge in the event of a fire.

It must be understood that at this time social and economic conditions made life comparatively simple. Gas and matches were unknown thus eliminating those two fruitful sources of carelessness. Buildings were as a rule one-story in height and the floors, even in the dwellings of the wealthy, were flagged with stone. Hence the change was slow in coming and was concomitant with the demand for increased security of persons and property. Business activity began to show itself in all parts of Western Europe in the fifteenth century, and towns destined to be the industrial centres of the modern world had their genesis. With their growth began afresh a full appreciation of fire risks and the necessity of fire control. Yet it was not until the eighteenth century that one Richard Newsham designed a hand engine of practical utility. Water was supplied to it by hand and was then pumped out through a hose, thus forming the predecessor of the manual, draughting its own water and thereby supplying pumps.

America had to learn her lesson in her own way. From the Atlantic to the Pacific her colonists found the country covered with dense forests, which were naturally utilized for building purposes, and, as a result, as early as 1648 the first fire ordinance was adopted in New York, forbidding the use of wooden chimneys and providing for