Great Fire of Collinebourg

The Great Fire of Collinebourg, depicted by an unknown painter (1730)

The Great Fire of Collinebourg was the largest fire in the history of Collinebourg, Yonderre. It began on the evening of 20 October 1728 and continued to burn until the morning of 23 October. It destroyed approximately 28% of the city (measured by counting the number of destroyed lots from the cadastre) and left 20% of the population homeless. The reconstruction lasted until 1737. No less than 47% of Bourgville, which dates back to the Middle Ages and the founding of Collinebourg, was completely lost, and the 1728 fire is the main reason that few traces of medieval Collinebourg be found in the modern city. Although the number of dead and wounded was relatively low compared to the extent of the fire, the cultural losses were huge. In addition to several private book collections, 35,000 texts including a large number of unique works were lost with the University of Collinebourg library, and at the observatory on top of the university, both instruments and records were destroyed.

The fire started on Wednesday October 20, 1728, when seven-year-old Joanus Moullin knocked over a tallow candle whilst looking for a toy of his. Whilst such incidents were common in this period, the big difference between this and similar incidents was that the young Moullin hid in the courtyard of his home to avoid being beaten by his father, thus not informing anyone of the fire. Once the fire was reported by a nearby policeman, it had expanded to the very roof of the house in which it had started, the fire had already spread to such a degree that it could not simply be stopped by pouring buckets of water into it. The flames soon engulfed much of central Collinebourg.

The fire department of Collinebourg at the time was a volunteer organization made up mostly of masons and carpenters. Hampering the efforts to extinguish the flames was the military commandant of Collinebourg, Giles de Cabronne, who spent most of the first night of the fire beating civilians and volunteer firefighters alike into submission, that they may better fight the fire. Similarly, the police chief of the County of Collinebourg, Erik Himmelreich, appeared at the scene of the fire highly intoxicated, and after attempting to extinguish the flames, fell back to his home to recover what furniture was possible. Ultimately, Himmelreich was discovered in the wash house of a brothel Thursday morning, reaking of booze.

All throughout the night, Grand Duke of Yonderre Giles IV de Mortain rode through Collinebourg, organizing the battle against the flames enfulging the city. On the morning of Thursday, 21 October 1728, Giles IV had organized a human chain from the river Peritonne to the western quarter of Collinebourg most affected by the fire. Several houses throughout the city were demolished to stall the spreading of the fire. The Collinebourg Bourse narrowly escaped the Great Fire by the intentional demolition of a neighbouring house on the night of the 21st/22nd October, thus stopping the spread of the fire to the Bourse building itself. The Bourse would go on to function as a refugee shelter as more and more Collinebourgers were rendered homeless by the fire. The Life Guards of Foot of the Grand Duke charged the fire with brooms around Nouvelle-Estia, beating the flames back. Ultimately, the fire died on the morning of October 23, largely due to a heavy downpour of rain. Contemporary written records report that the fire was stopped by "GOD, and GOD alone".

The ultimate number of fatalitites to the Great Fire of Collinebourg is unknown but estimated to be around 20. Because of the fire, most of medieval Collinebourg burnt away. Because of the fire, new laws were introduced that demanded new houses be built with a certain amount of bricks to be more resistant to fire, rather than the medieval timber framing that had previously made up much of Collinebourg.