Urban and village fires as semi-meteorological events: the case of inner-Alpine Swiss settlements facing Foehn storms

Rohr, Christian (5 July 2022). Urban and village fires as semi-meteorological events: the case of inner-Alpine Swiss settlements facing Foehn storms (Unpublished). In: 11th ESEH Conference “Same planet, different worlds: environmental histories imagining anew”. Bristol. 04.-08.07.2022.

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Urban and village fires as well as forest fires are substantially influenced by meteorological conditions such as drought, strong winds and thunderstorms. It is therefore important to analyse such events also from an environmental and climate history point of view. This paper will deal with the so-called Foehn, a strong and warm katabatic wind in the central and northern Alpine valleys. Exposed to this frequent weather situation, mostly occurring in the winter half-year, the settlements in Switzerland (and also Austria) faced a permanent and increased risk of urban and village fires (and in some cases also forest fires). The paper will focus on the situation in Switzerland in the 19th and early 20th century, when many of the settlements affected still consisted of mostly wooden houses or stone houses with shingle roofs. It will be shown how the frequent experience of fires led to a learning process, but also a controversial discourse on local identity. On the one hand, besides local and supra-regional solidarity fire insurances became more popular during the 19th century, on the other hand, regulations to broaden the streets and to forbid wooden house and roof constructions were strongly contested. Small cities and villages like Glarus (great fire in 1861) and Meiringen, a tourist spot in the Bernese Alps hit twice by a destructive fire (1879, 1891), were rebuilt of stone with broad rectangular streets. Contrary, in the early 20th century, reconstruction with wooden houses became possible again in the canton of Valais, mostly due to the effort of the Heimatschutz, a trust to preserve old, traditional buildings and building techniques. In all of these cases, Foehn storms were the most important triggers to make small fires becoming catastrophic. In several communities, inhabitants had to serve as storm guards during Foehn events to avoid further fires.

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