THE
GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
SUMMARY
It is London in 1666, the people are ill because
of the rats in the streets and houses. Thomas Farriner is making bread for the
king in his bakery, his family helps him. They work quickly because it’s late
and they should go to bed. Because of Thomas’s mistake in the closing of the
oven a fire begins, soon the whole bakery is on fire. Farriner wakes up and
tries to escape from the fire, but one girl, Mary, dies on the roof of the
burning house. Quickly the fire spreads to the other houses. A crowd of tweenty
fire-fighters arrive for help and begin puting water on the burning houses, now
all the houses of Pudding Lane are on fire. The people go fast to the River Thames;
there they can save their lives. Also the rats invade the streets running out
from the fire. In other place of London, Sir Samuel Pepys, who works for the
government, is asleep is his bed, his maid wakes him up and he looks out at the
window. Thinking that it’s not a big fire Pepys goes back to bed. Later, Pepys’
maid wakes him up again, now the fire is burning a big part of London, also St.
Paul’s cathedral burns. Pepys quickly puts on his clothes and goes out, he must
help the people and stop the fire. Meeting his good friend Sir Richard Moore,
Pepys finds the solution for the fire: They must blow up the houses near the
fire! With this idea Pepys and Moore go quickly to see The King. The King
receives Pepys and says that it’s a good idea, blowing up the houses near the
fire so the fire can’t speard to more houses. With a King’s letter Pepys &
Moore, in a King’s coach, go fast and madly trough the narrow streets of
London. They must see the Lord Mayor to beging blowing up the houses. When they
meet the Lord Mayor, a man who the people were trying to find before with no
results, he says that nobody wants to lose their houses and shops, so they
can’t blow up them. The Lord Mayor says that he is tired and dirty and goes
home. A group of soldiers from the King just arrive; “We are here to blow up
houses!” says them. They start blowing up houses. Four days after the begining
of the fire, the wind changes direction. Now the fire is over. Peepys &
Moore meet in the only cathedral which is not burned, looking at the city they
agree that thirty thousands houses and ninety cathedrals are destroyed by the
fire, but, only nine people are dead. Fifty years later London looks different,
instead of the narrow steets there are wide streets, and a new St. Paul’s
cathedral is there near the River Thames, and the more important thing: There
are no more rats.
END