218 • Survivingnewsletter account said, reflecting on the death toll along with the darkened
sky.^1
John Evelyn saw the fires on the third day. He had come to Westminster
to press Albemarle for a pest-ship for his infected sailors. Nearly ten thou-
sand poor creatures were perishing every week in the metropolis, he re-
corded. Forlorn survivors crouched on their doorsteps as he passed the wa-
termen’s shabby quarters in Southwark, crossed over deserted London
Bridge, and sped along Fleet Street and the Strand to Charing Cross, arriv-
ing at last at Saint James Palace near the Cockpit. Evelyn did not mention
the coalfires; he was taken aback by “the coffins exposed in the streets, now
thin of people; the shops shut, and all in mournful silence, not knowing
whose turn it might be next.”^2 How could the officials manage this crisis and
keep law and order?
As Evelyn watched, a torrential downpour came from nowhere and within
a short time extinguished the neighborhood fires. Skeptics knew the fires
could do no good, and now God was confirming their judgment. Didn’t the
latest Bill of Mortality, published on the day of the storm, show an increase
in plague deaths from 6 , 102 to 6 , 988? Then, after a short dip, the plague
count reached the highest point yet, 7 , 165 ; only four parishes in the entire
metropolis were plague-free, confirming the views of the fire naysayers.^3
Had the continuous blazes of September been accidental, one would have
thought hell had been let loose on earth. But King Charles himself had ap-
proved this action from Salisbury, hoping to “correct and purify the air” in his
capital. Mayor Lawrence had promptly sent an order from the Guildhall to
all the neighborhoods of the city and its liberties. Captain General Albe-
marle dispatched similar orders to the rest of the metropolis. By eight o’clock
on the night of September 5 , the fires were lit.^4
Dr. Hodges was dismayed by this public health undertaking. He had
heard too much talk about the smoke from street fires acting as a giant pro-
phylactic against a possible weekly death count of ten thousand. The doctor
supported the fumigation of homes to contain the contagion, but he was
convinced these smoke-producing fires in the streets would only prove costly,
useless, and harmful to the public’s health. Later, Hodges claimed that the
fires had precipitated the most fatal twenty-four hours of the entire Great
Plague of London. Suffocated and enervated by the heat and smoke, four
thousand Londoners expired in a single day!^5
Religious dissenters were likewise appalled by the fires and were scandal-
ized that secular powers would attempt to usurp the role of God. Why had