Fire Facts

Who Invented The Modern Match?

Gustaf Erik Pasch is the inventor of the modern safety match. His invention was improved upon by John Edvard Lundström, another Swede. The most important adaptation of previous types of matches was the exchange of the dangerous, and deadly, white phosphorous with red phosphorous.

Some Famous Fires

• The Great Chicago Fire occurred on 8th October 1871. The origins of the fire are unknown, but the results were 300 people dead and 17 000 structures destroyed, these included factories, government buildings, hotels, and other businesses. All of the buildings in the downtown Chicago area that were obliterated by the fire were made of wood, as well as the sidewalks, which had just been completed soon before the fire started.
• The Great Fire of London killed an unknown number of people over the several days that it burned through London. It destroyed over 13 000 structures, including several city prisons and four bridges. Almost 100 local chapels and churches were reduced to rubble, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. The fire began on 2nd September 1666 in a baker’s shop and burned for three days. After the fire, holes were drilled at regular intervals along streets to provide direct access to water mains for more effective fire fighting.
• In 1906 San Francisco was rocked by a severe earthquake that caused multiple fires to break out, combining in a terrifying citywide conflagration, consuming 500 blocks of downtown San Francisco. 300 000 structures were destroyed and it is estimated that more than 3000 people died and almost 80 percent of the over 400 000 residents were left homeless.

More Fire-Related Facts

• Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA.
• A matchstick machine can produce as much as one million matches an hour.
• Evergreen vegetation burns easier than deciduous (plants that shed their leaves before cold or dry seasons) vegetation.
• Another name for a forest fire — a fire in which the fire jumps with great speed from tree to tree — is a “crown fire”. The “crown” of the tree being its upper branches and leaves.
• More than half of all arson in the United States is committed by adolescents.
• Fires actually climb up hills very fast.
• Approximately 4500 people a year die in the USA from fire and burn injuries. Over one million burn injuries are reported in the USA every year, a decline from the 1950s and 1960s when two million burn injuries were sustained annually.
• An easy way to check for gas leaks is to apply soapsuds to connections when the gas is on — bubbling at any connection will be indicative of a leak and should be inspected by a professional.
• A quarter of all fires in the USA are deliberately set.