In September 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 13000 houses, 87 Parish churches as well as St Pauls Cathedral, and had uprooted hundreds of thousands of Londoners. But how did the fire start and spread so rapidly? Why did King Charles II intervene and what took him so long? And what were the social and economic consequences of the fire? In this edition of How and Why History, Rob Weinberg asks the big questions about this unforgettable event in the history of London to historian Ian Mortimer, author of the Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England.