The person generally accepted as being responsible for
The Great Fire of London is one
Thomas Farrinor, who was
baker to
King Charles II. The fire started at his house, in
Pudding Lane and it was here that the fires first victim was claimed - one of Farrinor's
maids.
Arguably, the person most responsible for the scale of the disaster was London's Lord Mayor, a man named Bludworth. In those days, the spread of a fire such as this was arrested by the demolition of certain buildings in the path of the fire, thereby creating a firebreak. The Lord Mayor baulked at this option, citing the cost of reconstruction. Bludworth's decison was overruled by royal decree, but this delay, coupled with poor calculation of which particular buildings to demolish and the over-zealous use of gunpowder, caused the scale of damage to be greatly increased.