Adrian Tinniswood

The important point about these initial stages, Dan, is that nobody's actually putting the fire out.

Everybody's looking for themselves.

Everybody's trying to evacuate their own goods.

There's looting going on all the way down the north bank of the Thames.

A merchant called Tarswell, who's got a house just to the east of Pudding Lane near Bishopsgate, he rushes out and finds some men and gives them money to evacuate his goods to safety.

And they evacuate his goods to safety.

He never sees them again.

Order is breaking down.

I think that's the important thing to note.

And it's accelerated by the rumor that's going around already by Sunday evening that this is a terrorist attack.

This is an attack by the Dutch.

They're setting fire to the city and it's a prelude to an invasion.

This isn't as crazy as it sounds.

A few weeks before this,

A force of English Marines under the flamboyant Sir Robert Holmes, who used to wear a gold lace suit and carry a monkey on his shoulder, had burned 150 Dutch merchant ships and set fire to the town of Wester Schelling, a Dutch town, in what was called Robert Holmes's bonfire.

And everybody cheered.

Everyone thought this was great.

We were burning out the Dutch.

So it was natural for them to think, crikey, it's happening to us now.

They're getting their own back.