Throughout the history of its existence, Peter suffered many fires of varying degrees, which destroyed a large number of buildings and various structures. There were even such years when a real “fire epidemic” gripped him, which was described in his books by many famous Russian classics. Today, there is also a greater number of fires in this city, but there were especially terrible fires in St. Petersburg, which entailed terrible consequences, which should be discussed in more detail.
Destruction of the sea settlement
In the thirties of the eighteenth century, these natural disasters were especially large, during which a whole settlement, and subsequently a large part of the Admiralty Island, was completely destroyed.
The first fire arose in 1736 due to the carelessness of the servants of the ambassador of Persia. It began in the building of Mytny Dvor, and then covered the territory of Bolshaya and Malaya Morskaya Streets. This disaster lasted for eight hours. The consequences of this fire were very great - more than a hundred residential buildings burned down.
In June next year, an even bigger fire broke out in St. Petersburg, which arose in several places at the same time. It has been raging for much longer, so more than one thousand houses have burned down, and the Postal yard has also burned out completely.
As a result of these two disasters, a commission was created that further prohibited the construction of wooden buildings and houses in St. Petersburg.
How the temples and theaters burned
The nineteenth century began not in the best way for cultural institutions in the city. The fires in St. Petersburg were replaced one after another, wiping out remarkable buildings and beautiful buildings from the face of the earth. Thus, in 1811, a terrible catastrophe occurred at the Bolshoi Theater on New Year's Eve. There was such a terrible fire that the glow from it could illuminate the whole city. Prior to this, a fire had already occurred here eight years before this disaster, but it claimed much less victims and was quickly localized.
In 1825, another cultural institution was touched by a fire in St. Petersburg. Photos of this theater on Chernyshevsky show that before the disaster, it was a very beautiful building, the facade overlooked the Fontanka. They only managed to open it on Shrovetide, and already during Great Lent, it burned to the ground in just three hours. As it turned out later, the cause of the fire was a cracked stove. In the same year, the temple of the All Guard burned to the ground. The flame appeared early in the morning, and by the evening the building was already gone. The fire was caused by workers who had the imprudence to leave the brazier unattended.
Over the period of 1826, several forests lit up around the Northern capital of Russia, which firefighters could not put out for several weeks. Thus, the whole city was under a veil of smoke and burning.
The worst catastrophe of the 19th century in St. Petersburg
This happened on the second of February 1836, when the shed of Lehman caught fire on Admiralty Square. This fire in St. Petersburg arose at the very beginning of the performance and started from the dressing room, where a highly hanging lamp lit up. Subsequently, the fire spread to the wooden beams, and a terrible panic began among the public. People began to rush from one narrow aisle to another to exit, although all eight large doors of the amphitheater were open, and thus all spectators could get out without exception. But in the current turmoil, a real stampede began, so the other exits that the audience there wanted to take were blocked.
That is why the disaster claimed the lives of 126 people, 10 received severe injuries and burns.The salvation of the people remaining inside the building was led by Emperor Nicholas I himself, who left the scene of the tragedy only when the last victim was found. Then, by his order, a requiem was held on this ashes for all the dead people here.
Apraksin Yard
In May 1862, terrible fires began, which did not cease for more than two weeks. They were destructive in nature, as they burned out entire blocks. One of them was a disaster that happened in Spirits day, at five o'clock in the evening and destroyed all market buildings. In honor of the holiday and on the occasion of wonderful weather, the courtyard was especially crowded, so a terrible panic began, the whole audience rushed to where, knocking each other on the way. At this time, several more places with great fires appeared in the city, and the whole sky was lit up by a glow.
After such a terrible fire and its terrible consequences, a year later many structures of Apraksin Dvor were restored, and a whole shopping arcade was built along Sadovaya Street.
Schukin market
This place borders on the Apraksin market, so the fire of 1862 affected its buildings, as a result of which they almost all burned out. In total, more than six thousand trading shops were destroyed in this quarter in two yards.
Then this market was also restored by well-known architects of that time, such as: A. Krakau, A. Fontana, A. Bertels and others. These talented people managed to create a beautiful complex that successfully harmonizes with the entire surrounding structure and buildings.
Industrial zone "Shushary"
In our century, there were also some terrible disasters. So, on October 8, 2012, a huge fire raged in St. Petersburg. Photos from his place show that there has not been such a serious fire in the city for more than ten years. And it happened in the southern part of St. Petersburg near the warehouse of the Toyota plant in the Shushary industrial zone.
The area covered by the fire amounted to more than three thousand square meters. Explosions were heard during the disaster, a huge column of smoke rose. There were employees on the premises, fortunately no one was hurt, the fire was put out for two hours by the efforts of twenty-five fire brigades.
Two fires in a hotel
The first fire in this building occurred in 1991, as a result of which sixteen people were killed. Then, on October 16, 2015, a new fire occurred in the St. Petersburg Hotel, as a result of which more than one thousand people who were placed in a nearby school were evacuated in a timely manner. Therefore, fortunately, there are no victims.
The fire occurred in the renovated wing of the building, as many witnesses to this incident say that the trash caught fire. Several streets were blocked to localize the fire, after which it was extinguished in a couple of hours and all the guests were returned to their places.
Part of the city with particularly frequent fires
A fire in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg is a rather frequent business. The largest fire, covering an area of more than ten thousand square meters, occurred here on October 17, 2012 in warehouses with auto parts, tires, engine oil and explosive aerosols.
This major fire was extinguished by about two hundred and forty rescuers and fifty-four units of special equipment. The helicopter of the Ministry of Emergency Situations made more than twenty sorties and dropped about twenty tons of water. Firefighters fought with this flame for more than three days. Acrid smoke spread throughout the area and it was difficult for locals to breathe.
Finally, when it was still possible to localize the fire, it was found that there were no dead or injured in the terrible catastrophe. And this fire was assigned the highest level of complexity.
A little later, already on December 27, 2015, the first floor of a large shopping center caught fire in the same area, fortunately, this fire in St. Petersburg did not take a single life.Now in Vyborg, according to the latest data, there was a fire at 5 a.m. on February 22, 2016 in the gardening of Bavaria, during which, unfortunately, two people died.
As many news shows, a fire in St. Petersburg happens very often, so you should be careful and follow all necessary safety measures to be able to avoid this disaster.