Ayer Itam Wet Market

This guide starts at one twenty-five in the afternoon on Chinese New Year's Day, 1935, when a gust of wind carries burning incense papers onto a nearby roof and Air Itam catches fire. It follows the destruction that spreads in the minutes after, the two buildings left standing, and the brick town that rose from donations afterward, including from the tycoon Aw Boon Haw. Look for the squat brick pawnshop and the plain wooden police station still standing beside each other, the fire's two survivors.