Edo suffered badly from devastating fires and the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki was a turning point in urban design. Initially, as a method of reducing fire spread, the government built stone embankments in at least two locations along rivers in the city. Over time these were torn down and replaced with "dōzō" storehouses that were used both as fire breaks and to store goods unloaded from the canals. The "dōzō" were built with a structural frame made of timber coated with a number of layers of earthen plaster on the walls, door and roof. Above the earthen roofs was a timber framework supporting a tiled roof. Although Japanese who had studied with the Dutch at their settlement in Dejima advocated building with stone and brick this was not undertaken because of their vulnerability to earthquakes. "Machiya" and storehouses from the later part of the period are characterised by having a black coloration to the external plaster walls. This colour was made by adding India ink to burnt lime and crushed oyster shell.