Fire in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 17th century illustration. Entitled The Burning of the Old Town Hall, in Amsterdam, July 7, 1652 this engraving comes from a 1690 publication by Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712). Van der Heyden was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and inventor who witnessed the Old Town Hall fire, and subsequently made significant contributions to firefighting. With his brother Nicolaes, a hydraulic engineer, he made improvements to the fire hose. He also modified manual fire engines, reorganised the volunteer fire brigade and wrote and illustrated the first firefighting manual.