The Tooley Street fire takes the life…
June 1861 CE
The fire starts at Cotton's Wharf on Tooley Street, near to St Olave's Church, Southwark, London, on June 22, 1861.
The wharf is around 100 by 50 feet (30 m × 15 m), and containsaround 5,000 tons of rice, 10,000 barrels of tallow, 1,000 tons of hemp, 1,100 tons of jute, 3,000 tons of sugar and 18,000 bales of cotton at the time of the fire.
The cause of the fire is believed to have been spontaneous combustion.
The fire is first noticed around 4 p.m., and by 6 p.m., 14 fire engines, including one steam engine, from the London Fire Engine Establishment are at the scene.
Over thirty thousand people watch the fire burn, and the fire will take two weeks to put out, during which time around twenty police officers will remain present at the scene.
In total, the damages from the fire are around £2 million.
The fire causes damage to buildings up to a quarter miles (0.40 km) away from Cotton's Wharf, and destroys eleven acres (45,000 m2) of land.
The London Bridge railway station also catches fire in the blaze
Contemporaries describe the fire as the worst London fire since the Great Fire of London.
During the fire, a section of a warehouse collapses on top of James Braidwood, the superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment (later the London Fire Brigade), killing him.
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