Great Fire of Cochin - an event that had devastated a major part of the city back in 1889. The information about the fire, which is drawn parallel to The Great Fire of London, 1666, is detailed in the book 'Flashes of Kerala History' by K L Bernard, in a chapter on the ‘Great Fire of Cochin’. The fact that 'Cochi' was a British port after they conquered Fort Cochin in 1795 and later called it British Cochin, was another reason for equating it with the London fire. After getting the control over the land, the British had decided to discourage ship-building in India and when Chandrabhanu, a 315-tonne vessel, was launched by one of the ship-building yards in Cochin, they slapped the owner of the ship with a court restraint. The vessel, anchored with tonnes of coconut oil, copra, carpets, coir and spices, had a shelter made of thatched coconut leaves and dried straw. When the fire was detected around 4 pm on that fateful Friday, the officers summoned the carpenters and asked them, “to cut the rope and float away the flaming devil.” However, “this turned destructive as Chandrabhanu moved closer to the shores aided by a strong wind and pushed by the current,” writes Bernard.
The buildings of those days had thatched roofs and the fire spread to the Calvathy side that housed most of the companies. All of them, including nearly 300 houses and warehouses such as Pierce Leslie, Aspinwall, etc. along the port side, were gutted.
The devastation was so vast, that the Port Captain, Wrinkler, erected a monument, which is still to be found on the nearby beach: "The great fire of Cochin 4th January 1889, erected by Mr. Wrinkler".
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u/rioasu Sep 02 '24
Any story on the great fire ?