[michaelt]

Americans love building single-storey detached houses on big lots. And when they build an upper floor, they love complex roof systems where almost every upper floor window has a first floor roof or porch below it.

This means problems like fires spreading to adjacent buildings and fires trapping people where they can't escape are much reduced; you'd never see a repeat of the great fire of London in an American suburb because there's practically a fire break between every single home.

This is made affordable by America's vast tracts of land and high rates of car ownership.

[maxerickson]

I'm curious how you'd compare the Great Chicago Fire (that happened ~200 years later)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire

The same day, a forest fire ravaged a number of small towns:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_fire