Talk:Great New York City Fire of 1845/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Khazar2 (talk · contribs) 05:25, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

I'll be glad to take this review. Initial comments to follow in the next 1-3 days. Thanks in advance for your work on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 05:25, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Initial comments

On first pass, this looks quite solid and ripe for promotion. You've done an excellent job here, especially considering that this seems to be almost your first wiki article. It's well-written, provides sufficient detail without being overdetailed, and appears to cover the major aspects of its subject.

I've noted a few quibbles below that I'd like your thoughts on. I also did some minor copyediting, mostly for Manual of Style issues, as I went through the article; please take a look to make sure I didn't inadvertently introduce any errors, and feel free to revert anything you disagree with. Thanks again for your work on this!

• The lead should be expanded slightly per WP:LEAD; ideally, the lead should touch on each of the article's major sections (in this case, mentioning the warehouse explosion and long-term effects of the fire.)
• "Firemen battling the blaze " -- just wanted to make a quick check on the gender--are we confident all the firefighters involved were male? (In 1845, this seems extremely likely, but thought I'd doublecheck.)
• It's slightly confusing to transition from the blaze being under control at 1 PM to "The fire spread to destroy buildings " -- did this happen after 1 PM? Or before the fire was brought under control by firefighters? Either way a transitional phrase of some kind might add clarity here--"During the ten and a half hours that it burned, the fire had ..."
• " In today's currency" -- giving a specific year would be more helpful than saying "today's" per WP:REALTIME Never mind, I see this is the inflation template. Nice work.
• "As the fire spread, it reached" -- Another moment where the chronology gets confusing; you might immediately situate the reader by saying "In the first two hours of the fire's spread" or some such. -- Khazar2 (talk) 05:52, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks so much for reviewing the article. These are great comments and right on the money. I'm working on this article with a small group of collaborators, and we'll make sure to implement these changes. We'll let you know as soon as that is done. --Brodmont (talk) 12:39, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

About the use of "firemen," yes, I wondered about that when writing that part. Nowadays I think we would use the gender-neutral term "firefighters." However, I'm certain there were no women in those engine companies at the time, and the term "fireman" was the one used at the time. That said, since we are writing today, I wonder whether it might be better to use the modern term. --Brodmont (talk) 12:39, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

That's up to you, then. "Firemen" might be a more accurate usage if that's what your sources use. But it won't be an issue for GA status one way or the other. -- Khazar2 (talk) 14:43, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

We've expanded the lead section as you requested. Please let us know whether this looks right. Thanks very much for your attention to this article. --Brodmont (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Checklist

Rate	Attribute	Review Comment
1. Well-written:
	1a. the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct.	See above for minor clarity suggestions. Spotchecks show no evidence of copyright issues.
	1b. it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.	I'd suggest expanding the lead by 2-3 sentences to summarize all the article's sections.
2. Verifiable with no original research:
	2a. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline.
	2b. reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose).
	2c. it contains no original research.
3. Broad in its coverage:
	3a. it addresses the main aspects of the topic.	A brief article, but comparison to sources suggest main aspects are covered.
	3b. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
	4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
	5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
	6a. media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content.	Thanks in particular for creating the map.
	6b. media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
	7. Overall assessment.	Pass as GA.