Fema's Hazard Mitigation Report

T’s been 145 years since the event of The Great Chicago Fire. The fire started October 8, 1871 just after 9:00pm. The fire started in a barn at Patrick and Catherine O’Leary’s house. There was a bell at the top of the courthouse that warned people of the fire. However, the cause of fire is still unknown, but the biggest theory is that O’Leary cow kicked over a lantern.

The county fire marshal Alan Carson, saw the fire around 1.30 am and he defined the fire was a big one. Added that the weather and

The preconditions of the area where the fire occurred were very dry land with “whipping seasonal gusts known as the Santa Ana winds and the Diablo winds” (mnn.com). The fire was started by a hunter who was lost in the woods. He believed he could be found easily if he started a small signal fire however, because of the preconditions, this small fire would spread and become the “largest single fire in California’s recorded history” (mnn.com)

The wildfire fighting agency, Cal Fire, has reported minor injuries and notes that most of the fires are over 60% contained. In some cases, the land damage has been substantial. Fires in San Bernardino and Alpine counties have burned almost 50,000 acres. Rocky Fire, one of the largest wildfires, has destroyed three homes and led to a mandatory evacuation order for about 500 homes. The fire's location in steep terrain is making work

The Great Chicago Fire was a tragic event to happen in the city's history. While the cause of this major fire is unknown, Chicago's wood buildings and dry summer made the fire much worse. There are a few theories to how this fire started, but what is known for sure is that it started in the O'Leary's barn. This particular fire lasted two days and spread quickly. Firefighters were contacted, but were sent to the wrong place, causing chaos and delays as they tried to find the fire. By the time firefighters got there, the fire was spreading from house to house, already unmanageable. Before they knew it the fire had taken over the city. Within two days, the water tank in the city had run out of water. Luckily before the fire moved further, on October 10 1871, it was put out by nature's rain.

constructing direct fire line in the canyon during the late morning and early afternoon hours. Later in the afternoon the crew was attempting to control spot fires located east of the

The earthquake had caused the gas lines and water mains to break. Not making the situation any easier, power and communication lines also came down as a result of the shaking. All of the damage and human activity equated to numerous fires that would last for three days. Adding to the cluster of chaos that city officials and emergency services had to endure, was the fact that there was no water to mitigate the fires, since there was no water pressure from the water mains that broke during the quake. The problem that they faced was a possibility they thought could happen. However, they never did anything to avoid the fact that the water mains would fail them in result of an earthquake. A plan had even been made to pump water from the San Francisco bay, however it was never implemented, (Gunn,

The Clayton fire, named for the creek near where it broke out, was driven by fierce winds into the foothill community of Lower Lake, 80 miles (130 km) north of San Francisco, forcing hundreds of residents to flee. That fire broke out on Saturday evening.

Although most of the fires were created by the horrendous weather conditions, some fires were lit by the sparks coming off faulty power lines and the disposal of cigarette butts. This would have been possible because the grass and plants in the area were very dry. Whilst this was the cause of some fires, most of the fires were spread and lit by the weather conditions at that time.

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration, which is an extensive fire that destroys a great deal of land or property. This fire burned from October 8 to October 10, 1871 but it was a thought that it started from a cow in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn that kicked a lantern over which caught hay ablaze. In October of 1871, dry weather and abundances of wooden buildings, streets, and sidewalks

The wooden city often experienced fires but, on October 8, 1871 the firefighters were already fatigued from a large fire the night before. The previous fire also resulted in the loss of some firefighting equipment. To make matters worse, the city had been experiencing a lengthy dry spell. A steady breeze from the Southwest, in addition to the dry spell which had spanned the length of several months, would make firefighters efforts futile.

These fires highlighted that there were not enough fire fighters and resources to combat such fires. They highlighted areas that lacked emergency service protection and showed a lack of preparedness (San Diego Fire Facts, 2016). Years after the fires, some changes that came about include: wood shake shingles being banned on new construction and could not be used as roof replacements (Mainar, 2013) and 100 feet became the new defensible space, an increase from 65, between the fuel, for example vegetation, of the fire and the structure (Mainar, 2013). There’s an increase in code compliance officers in the field from two to seven (Mainar, 2013). Evacuation procedures and notices were

fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 struck my interest in the first two weeks of readings. Being honest, I’ve never read much about the fires until now. These fires were started by a lighting storm. According to most records small fires were reported in June and everything seemed okay for the beginning of the summer. Then July came around and the whole summer was just about the fires. ("The Yellowstone Fires Of 1988")

Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire