Page 22 - August 2016

THE SALAMANDER | AUGUST 2016
Prompted by a simple question, ‘Why would anybody confess to starting a fire that they hadn’t, and allow themselves to be hanged as a consequence?’ world renowned fire investigator Liveryman Peter Mansi decided to research the fire and in particular, the way in which it was investigated at the time. He used current methodologies to conduct a cold-case review and his work has highlighted some serious shortcomings in the original investigation and the documentation of it. In places his conclusions are at variance with those of the parliamentary report. It was this piece of investigative work that was the catalyst for the production of this book.
companies, churches and on society generally. It brought about a realisation that fire safety and fire precautions needed to be enhanced, and in so doing, stimulated the development of both fire insurance and organised firefighting arrangements.
We have dedicated our work to the generations of firefighters who have for so long protected our City and its citizens from the scourge of fire and disaster, and who continue to do so today.
Bruce Hoad
Master Worshipful Company of Firefighters
All this, the fire time-line from a forensic perspective, the history of the fire’s impact on livery companies and churches and its impact on the City and its society thereafter, is presented in this commemorative book. The Worshipful Company of Firefighters has also included a suggested ‘Great Fire Walk’ which will take the reader around many of the places mentioned in the book.
This book is a commemorative view marking the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London of 1666. The book has been authored by the Worshipful Company of Firefighters to provide, from a 21st century perspective, an educational appreciation of why and how this fire progressed. It also sets out the impact that the fire had within the City of London, on livery
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“The Great Fire of 1666 is one of the most widely researched topics in world history and, I believe, the most famous event in British history overseas. So much has been written about it in the past that it would be difficult to produce a commemorative work that is significantly different from previously published histories, and yet that is exactly what the Worshipful Company of Firefighters has managed to do. In undertaking a forensic review of all the evidence available, and by applying the latest fire investigation methodologies to this work, they have managed to produce a report into the fire that is both informative and challenging in its conclusions.”
Alderman the Lord Mountevans
The Rt Hon the Lord Mayor of London