In 1871, a legend was started, which was later disproved, but the story is so compelling, people still sing the song of how the O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started a fire that burned down 4 square miles in Chicago. While a cow probably didn’t really start the fire, there really was a rather large fire that destroyed over 17,000 buildings and claimed more than 200 lives. This all started on October 8^th and led to the rebirth of Chicago and significant reform in the fire codes in most cities in the US. Of course, there have been other famous (or infamous) as the case may be.

1. The burning of the Library of Alexandria. This first occurred in 50 B.C. Then again in 242, 391, and 640 AD. I think the Library was doomed. But then again, not many buildings today last that long.

2. The Great Fire of London in 1666. Destroyed over 70,000 homes. And we get upset when we lose a few hundred.

3. The White House and The US Capital in 1814. Burned by the British. Of course, in 1834 the British would lose their own Palace of Westminster to fire.

4. The Hindenburg caught fire. Certainly not the largest, but extremely famous and changed the direction of air travel significantly. 36 people died in a fire that lasted a mere 16 seconds.

5. In 1967 the Apollo 1 burned during ground tests. The Soviets had a space craft burn a few years earlier and in 1986 and again in 2003 we had more tragedy with our space programs.

6. In 1840 the Lexington, a steam ship, sunk after catching fire taking 175 people down with it.

7. October 2007, Southern California had a series of wild fires that burned over a half million acres and destroyed at least 1500 homes. In terms of area, Yellowstone had a bigger fire in 1988 with nearly 800,000 acres burnt, but very few buildings.

8. The Guy Fawkes Bon Fires. While not well known in the US, November 5^th is celebrated with a night of bon fires in the UK and other parts of the world.

9. The 1906 Earthquake and Fires in San Francisco. This one would be comical if it weren’t so sad. The earthquake did substantial damage to the city, but the fire did as much, if not more. The fire department was overwhelmed and did things like blow up buildings to create fire breaks, only to see the buildings next to the ones they destroyed catch fire. Also, homeowners were lighting their own homes on fire to collect fire insurance as they had no quake insurance. To make matters worse, the quake destroyed the water lines, so there were few, if any resources to fight the fires. Of the damage the city sustained, roughly 90% of it was due to these fires.

10. Ten seems too few, and I’ve left off some of the more significant war or terrorist caused fires such as the fires in London during WWII, the World Trade Center, the Atomic Bombs, Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Tokyo. While certainly historical, they perhaps belong on their own list someday.

Until then, be careful with those lanterns behind the cows and make sure you blow all your birthday candles out. We don’t want another fire like the one in Chicago!