Benjamin L. Carp describes how, as the fire spread, witnesses reported that pumps and bucket handles had been sabotaged to hinder firefighting efforts. The fire consumed Trinity Church, a prominent symbol of the Crown, which some believed was a deliberate

Benjamin L. Carp describes how, as the fire spread, witnesses reported that pumps and bucket handles had been sabotaged to hinder firefighting efforts. The fire consumed Trinity Church, a prominent symbol of the Crown, which some believed was a deliberate target of anti-Anglican rebels. In the ensuing chaos, British soldiers engaged in summary executions, bayoneting individuals suspected of being "incendiaries" or throwing them into the flames. One man, Wright White, was brutally hanged by his heels by enraged soldiers, serving as a grim example of the arbitrary violence and high tensions characterizing that night of destruction. (4)
1776