How did Samuel Pepys describe the Great Fire of London in 1666?

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Diarist Samuel Pepys — Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys, oil painting by John Hayls, 1666; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Samuel Pepys provided a vivid, firsthand account of the Great Fire of London in his famous diary. Writing as the disaster threatened his own home and possessions, he captured the scene with striking emotional intensity and artistic detail.1

In his journal, Pepys described the fire as an "entire arch of fire" stretching for over a mile, noting that the sight made him weep. He vividly recorded the destruction of the city, writing:1

The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruine.

His entries serve as an invaluable historical record of the event, documenting the chaos and the scale of the devastation that consumed much of the City of London in September 1666.231