Great New Orleans Fire
- When
- 1788–1794
- Where
- 619 Chartres Street, corner of Wilkinson; south central Vieux Carré; New Orleans
- Episodes
- 3
On Good Friday, March 21, 1788, a fire swept through Spanish colonial New Orleans, destroying 856 of the town's 1,100 structures—77.8% of its buildings—across the south central Vieux Carré from Burgundy to Chartres Street, nearly reaching the Mississippi River front.
Episodes
- Outbreak at the Nuñez Residence
The Good Friday fire began about 1:30 p.m. at Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nuñez's home on Chartres Street, near the Plaza de Armas.
- Destruction Across the Vieux Carré
The fire destroyed 856 of New Orleans's 1,100 structures—77.8% of buildings—spanning the south central Vieux Carré from Burgundy to Chartres Street.
- Rebuilding and the 1794 Fire
After six years of rebuilding, a second citywide fire on December 8, 1794, destroyed an additional 212 buildings in New Orleans.
Background and detail
Background. The fire occurred while New Orleans was a possession of New Spain, and it fell on Good Friday. It began in the early afternoon at a residence on Chartres Street, close to the Plaza de Armas, the town's central square now known as Jackson Square.
Outbreak and Spread. The blaze started around 1:30 p.m. at the home of Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nuñez, located at 619 Chartres Street at the corner of Wilkinson, less than a block from the Plaza de Armas. From there it spread across the south central Vieux Carré, stretching from Burgundy to Chartres Street and almost to the buildings fronting the Mississippi River.
Destruction and Aftermath. The fire destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans, amounting to 77.8% of the town's buildings. Six years of rebuilding followed, but on December 8, 1794, a second citywide fire destroyed an additional 212 buildings.
People involved
- Don Vincente Jose Nuñez · new_person_candidate: Army Treasurer whose home was the fire's point of origin
Sources
- Great New Orleans Fire (1788) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-06
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.