The Great New Orleans Fire of December 08, 1794

On any French Quarter walking tour in New Orleans, you will hear the story of the Great Fire of 1788.  But the “other fire” of 1794 gets little attention. In 1794, the city of New Orleans was struck with a devastating fire as it was rebuilding from the first fire. 

December 08, 1794 was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation in the Catholic city.  It is also traditionally a day when families gather and eat together, when workers have a day off, a sort of unofficial kick-off of the Christmas season.  Probably told to get out from underfoot as their families prepared for a feast, some boys playing with flint and tinder started a fire, which soon ignited some hay in a stable.  The blaze quickly spread, and in a few hours 212 structures in the city were in ruins.

New Orleans was at that time a city of about 6,000 to 7,000 people, including many recent arrivals from Haiti. The people of Spanish New Orleans were probably looking forward to the end of a pretty bad year. A malaria epidemic earlier that year had taken the lives of several citizens, and two hurricanes in August had caused fissures in the levees that separated the river from the town.  Revolution raged in France and the future of the Spanish colony was uncertain.  The streets of the city were choked with garbage and raw sewerage.  The inventions that would change the economic climate of the city – the cotton gin, granulation of sugar, and the steamboat – had not yet been introduced. 

On the other hand, the energetic and organized Governor Carondelet was ending his third year in his position.  He had brought the first newspaper and the first theatre to New Orleans, work had begun on the canal that would make it easier to bring goods into the city, and, after more than six years of worshiping at a temporary church, locals were looking forward to the dedication of the impressive new St. Louis Church on the town square. The governor had also required a well dug on each city lot for pumps in case of fire, and little “bridges” of wood built over the ditches between the streets and the sidewalks (banquettes). New pumps, shipped from Philadelphia, would be utilized on the day of the 1794 fire, probably resulting in less damage that there would have been without them.

areas of 1788 and 1794 fires

Then, the fire. The blaze began in the same block that the 1788 fire had begun, so most of the structures destroyed were “the newest, most improved, and opulent,” according to reports of the time.  The city jail was ruined. The warehouse containing the city’s entire store of wheat flour was destroyed, prompting us to go, for a moment, gluten-free.  Looting began almost immediately after the chaos.  Once tallied, the damage came to about 2.5 million dollars.