The tragic history began in 1177 when Moscow was set on fire by Ryazan Prince Gleb Rostislavich. At this point, the city was still rather small, and everything — from the Kremlin to Veliky Posad (the settlement outside the Kremlin) — was burnt to the ground. The city was again burned and levelled in 1238 and 1293, only this time by Mongol invaders.
In the 14th century, records began to distinguish between fires that occurred inside the Kremlin
and in Veliky Posad — the territory that would develop into Zaryadye. In 1368 Grant
Prince Dimitry Ivanovich set fire to Veliky Posad in anticipation of an attack by Lithuanian
Price Olgerd, and in 1382 Veliky Posad was again burned down by the Mongol-Tatar horde led
by Khan Tokhtamysh. Another fire erupted in 1390, which according to records “burnt thousands
of homes”, and other fires followed in 1395
and 1451. During a Mongol raid on May 23, 1468,
the entire settlement went up in flames, including the Epiphany Monastery and everything
along the riverside. In 1472, “several homes” and 25 churches were victim to a large fire.
In 1493, a great city-wide ravaged Moscow. According to records, "more than 200 people were
killed by the fire,
and a countless number of homes and farm animals were destroyed and killed.
The Church of the Conception of Saint Anna — the oldest church in Zaryadye — is mentioned
for the first time in the fire record.
The spring of 1547 was unusually hot, and fires began to break out in marketplace stalls located on what is now Red Square. The fire spread to Zaryadye and the salt and fish market, and then to Kitay Gorod, where the blaze ignited the gunpowder in the Kitay Gorod tower, which ruptured. In terms of scale, these fires were small compared to the Great fire that began on June 21. The fire broke out on Arbat Street, and then was carried by strong winds to the Kremlin, and then to Kitay Gorod. The whole eastern side of the city burned, as did the northwest settlement along the Neglinnaya, a tributary of the Moscow River. “You cannot see anything but smoke and earth” a witness to the fire recounted.
The next large-scale fire was a result of the invasion of the Crimean khan Devlet-Giray in 1571 during the Russo-Crimean Wars. His army arrived in Moscow, and on May 24 set fire to the settlements around the Kremlin and Kitay Gorod. The dry weather and sudden wind quickly spread the blaze throughout the city. Gunpowder from the Kremlin and Kitay Gorod quickly spread into the air. Thousands of Muscovites perished in flames and smoke. According to the Piskarevsky Chronicle, all of Moscow was ablaze in just three hours, and “countless people were burnt to ashes”.
The logic was that fewer wooden buildings and more stone would cause fewer fires. Authorities promised help as well as incentives to encourage more stone stalls. In 1584, Godunov established the Decree on Stone Works, which resulted in state and public buildings being built of stone material.
The government promoted stone construction among noblemen and rich merchants by supplying white
and red bricks, to be paid back in ten years’ time.
Despite all the efforts, rebuilding Moscow with stones and bricks was a slow process. Only few could afford to build their mansions with bricks or stone. In the 15th century, the owners of stone houses in Zaryadye were local residents and merchants. In the16th century, boyars mostly occupied stone houses, and by the 17th century, members of the royal Moscow court lived in stone houses, and sometimes churches were built with bricks. In 1668, when the Znamensky monastery on the territory of the Old English Court, the monks asked the tsar for money to rebuild the monastery.
The new modern Znamensky Cathedral, constructed in 1679-1684, was financed by the Tsar’s Treasury and boyar Ivan Miloslavsky.
There was more awareness around fire safety, but that awareness was rendered ineffective in a city that was still mostly wooden. Tsarist decrees made it illegal to heat up bathhouses and ovens during the warm season, and the restrictions were enforced by special military officers.
from the 16th-century Illuminated Compiled Chronicle
the 16th-century Illuminated Compiled Chronicle
The officers could break into homes, destroy ovens, or beat up the homeowner who wasn’t following fire code. And often these petty officials would abuse their official position for gain. An example from 1693 involves Tikhon Ivanov, a “state pauper and wandering pilgrim” who lived with his wife in Zaryadye. He complained about the overreach of a government official named Timofey Romanov who lived in a neighboring courtyard. The government official and the patrol arrived at Ivanov’s house late at night to check on his fire safety protections. It is unknown which violations were found, but Ivanov and his wife were arrested and “dragged” into the courtyard, robbed, and beaten. The officers seized coins, pieces of silver, and jewelry from the couple.
Despite the government official’s justifications, he was still put on trial for abuse of power. Residents of the settlement were obligated to keep pitchforks, axes, and water hoses on hand in case a fire broke out. In addition, fire extinguishing equipment was installed on Red Square (not far from Zaryadye) by order of the central government. Under Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the first Moscow fire brigade was established at Zemsky Dvor with 200 personnel and several horses. The ‘station’ was supposed to always have 20 barrels of water stored to extinguish fires. But the water alone couldn’t fully extinguish the fire; more often than not the water was used on the collapsed buildings surrounding the fire to prevent its spread.
The city’s ‘fire alarm’ was signaled with a special bell chime. In 1668, Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich personally decreed the introduction of fire-alarm bell-ringing. The decree dictated how to ring the alarm bells that hung in the Nabatnaya, Tainitskaya and Troitskaya towers. For example, if the Kremlin was on fire — all three bells would be sounded “in both directions as soon as possible”. And if the fire began in Kitay Gorod, then the bells in the Nabatnaya and Spassky towers would ring “first in one direction, soon followed by the other”. Soon after the introduction of the alarms, the towers were also used as observation decks to look out for the first signs of new fires.