Fires

Eric L. Jones
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Eric L. Jones: University of Buckingham

Chapter Chapter 14 in Barriers to Growth, 2020, pp 125-135 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Early modern settlements were at high risk from fire. The main change came after 1750, when the absolute number and average destructiveness of fires fell steeply. Meanwhile the population rose; the difference between the resultant growth of settlements and the decrease in dwellings lost by fire was the remarkable ‘fire gap’. Safety measures, including manual fire pumps, had scarcely coped with big blazes. Changes embodied in the Improvement Acts contributed to greater security but the chief advance was the replacement of building materials by brick and tile, especially the substitution of tile roofs for thatch.

Keywords: Fire disasters; Manual pumps; Decrease in fire losses; The ‘fire gap’; Improvement Acts; Thatched roofs replaced by tile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-44274-3_14

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-44274-3_14

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