August 18: On This Day in World History … briefly
Only a few days after the fire, the Venizelos government announced that it would not allow reconstruction of the city as it was and intended to create a new city instead, according to an urban plan.
1917: The ‘Great Fire’ in Thessaloniki, Greece, leaves 70 000 homeless
The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 destroyed two thirds of the city of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, leaving more than 70 000 homeless. The fire burned for 32 hours and destroyed 9 500 houses within an extent of 1 square kilometre.
Half the Jewish population emigrated from the city as their livelihoods were gone. Rather than quickly rebuilding, the government commissioned the French architect Ernest Hébrard to design a new urban plan for the burned areas Thessaloniki and for the future expansion of the city. His designs are still evident in the city, most notably Aristotelous Square, although some of his most grandiose plans were never completed due to a lack of funds
According to the findings of the investigation by the Court of Thessaloniki, the fire began on Saturday, August 18, 1917, at roughly 3pm, by accident at a small house of refugees at Olympiados 3, in the Mevlane district between the center and the Upper City when a spark from the kitchen fire fell in a pile of straw and ignited it. Due to lack of water and indifference, the initial fire was not put out. Eventually, an intense wind carried the fire to the neighboring houses, and it continued throughout central Thessaloniki.
Initially the fire followed two directions, to the Residency via the road of Agiou Dimitriou, and to the market via the Leontos Sofou road. The Residency was saved by its employees, who hurried to help. The wind strengthened and continued to spread the fire towards the center of the city. In the early morning of the next day (August 19), the wind changed direction and the two fronts of the fire destroyed all the commercial center. At 12am, the fire passed around the grounds of the church of Haghia Sophia without burning it and continued eastward up to the road of Ethnikis Amynis (former name Hamidie) where it stopped. On the evening of that day the fire completely died out.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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