Frequent and big fires, that was the problem of our cities in the past centuries. The causes of the origin were different, especially in our carelessness. A large range of fires was caused by the fact that the houses were mostly wooden. Neither our city was spared the terrible suffering that brought about great fires, but it was not affected as hard as other cities. Zikmund Winter, in his work, “Cultural Image of Bohemian Cities”, says that Hradec Králové burned out six times a hundred years, Klatovy burnt down 66 years nine times and burned in Jihlava for 38 years seven times.
Another cause of a large scale was the imperfect way of fighting. Up to the sixteenth century, blast hooks, roof sticks, ladders, axes, and pots were used. In the sixteenth century, a syringe and later a straw basket or a wearer (woven), a hose, and a syringe were added to these devices. Sometimes the peasants tried to push the unleashed element of the boundary by breaking down the roof of a house in the direction of the spread of fire, which stopped it.
