Church of the Company Fire

The Church of the Company Fire (December 8, 1863) is the largest fire ever to have affected the city of Santiago, Chile. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people died, probably the most people to die in an accidental fire in any one building anywhere in the world.

The Church of the Company of Jesus, (Spanish: Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús) was a Jesuit church located in downtown Santiago. The day of the fire was the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the most popular festivities of the religious calendar, and the temple was adorned with a profusion of candles and oil lamps and wall coverings. In the main altar, a large statue of the virgin Mary stood over a half-moon that in itself was a huge candelabra.

That night, the fire started a few minutes before 7 PM, when an oil lamp at the top of the main altar ignited some of the veils that adorned the walls (some early accounts blamed a gas lamp, as people tried to make sense of the shocking tragedy amid old and new technology, but the church was not equipped with gas. The error, like the news itself, was copied by newspapers as far away as Australia). By a flaw in design, the church of Compañía had doors that swung inward. A strong wind blew the doors open during the liturgy. This wind knocked a candle off the podium and disrupted the meeting of worshippers. The fire started by the burning candle roared through the church which resulted in the church's destruction. More than 2500 people died in the fire.

Somebody tried to put it out by smothering it with another cloth, but managed only to make the fire jump over to the rest of the veils and from there on to the wood roof. The mostly women attendees panicked and tried to escape but the side doors had been closed in order to leave space to accommodate more people (they could be opened only inwards), leaving the main entrance as the primary escape route for most occupants in the church. Men were seated separately from women with an iron grating between them, and most of the men quickly escaped, many of them returning to the burning church to try to rescue those still trapped.

The priests retreated into the sacristy, and some of the men made their escape by following them. The priests were gathering together the valuables of the church to save them, and they closed the door to the sacristy so they could do this in peace. No one escaped through the sacristy after the door was closed. The priests then left the scene, all unharmed, with what valuables they were able to save from the blaze.

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