I. T's: The Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a tragic event that impacted many people at the time. The fire raged through the city of Chicago, Illinois from October 8th to October 10th, destroying 3.3 square miles of downtown Chicago. While the fire was devastating, it laid the groundwork for rebuilding a stronger Chicago.

People don’t know how it started but some people think it started by one of their cows kicking over a lantern and other people think it started from meteors. The fire was 4 miles long and 4 miles wide, about 300 people died from the fire and about 100,000 without homes.The fire caused about 200 million dollars in damage.Almost every person didn’t have a job.

In 1871 there was a great fire that nobody expected.It was a fire that roared like a lion that shines like in sun and burns like a volcano.One second you close your eyes and then you open them then,for that one second of your eyes closed you felt peace then you opened them and everything went to screaming,running,crying,and you in this fire and it was called “The Great Fire”.Jim Murphy showed us information that all of this happened that everything went wrong in The Great Chicago Fire.

The Great Chicago Fire was a major milestone in the city’s history. The fire started on October 8th, 1871 and did not end until October 10th, 1871. People never saw this fire coming which might have made it even worse. The only reason it spread so far was because everything was made out of wood, the ground was parched and the wind was blowing that night; the reason it stopped was because it had started raining. Although the fire destroyed most of the city, it was a positive turning point in history. The Chicago Fire improved firefighting and their equipment, new buildings that were made out of fireproof materials, and it brought big investors to the city.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)

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.

Just as everyone thought the fire was dying down and would no longer spread, the wind picked up, and the fire spread, causing it to head farther northward. Then, something terrible happened. Fire Devils. Fire Devils are whirls of air which send burning wood and such things flying through the air, and in this case, across a river. Not good.

   The fire was supposedly caused by Catherine O'Leary's cow who kicked over a lantern, however this is just legend and can't be proven as the actual start of the fire. The fire burned out of control due to the windy quality of the city and possibly even the dry weather. Another contributing factor is that the fire department was sent to the wrong location, which caused them to arrived at the fire later then they should have. The Fire began on the night of October 8th and was finally put out on the 10th. The fire was extinguished by the firefighters, but was also put out due the rain that fell that day. As you can see the fire was very uncontrollable, lasted for a long period of time, and would cause severe damage to the city.

One man saw the fire and tried to get someone to use the fire box to get the fire department to send a fire truck. Sadly he had no such luck in notifying them. Fire boxes were boxes located on the street corner for people to use to alert the closest fire department, because telephones were not commonly available at that time. The other man just insisted that a fire truck had probably already been called and was on its way. The fire was so destructive because there were many mistakes and dangerous

This provides insight into how frequently fires occurred, and furthermore provides information as to how they happened, as in the 18th century, due to the lack of cleanliness would result in buildup of old grease and arbitrary sparks in combination to this could cause enormous fires. This means that fires could easily be caused by what some may refer to as accidental incidents, variables for these types of situations are often those that are not under one's

First of all, two-thirds of the city was made of wood. There was wooden buildings, stores, frames, and lots more. There were 59,500 buildings that were destroyed in the fire. That made it burn more and more. The fire started at the home of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. The wood was a bad thing. Since the whole town was made of

Did you know that the Chicago Fire burned 3.3 square miles and left more than 100,000 people homeless and killed more than 300 people. The Chicago Fire started on October 8, 1871, by a cow that kicked over a lantern into dry grass and started a barn fire, which spread quickly throughout the city . The firemen had a large effect putting out the Great Chicago Fire.

Sometimes I wonder what happened to Chicago on October 8, 1871 the day of the great fire why did it burn it was said that “It was a city ready to burn.” why was Chicago ready to burn that is what we find out about in this story. If you wish to have more information I would recommend “The Great Fire book by JIM MURPHY

A fire that swept through the center of Chicago began on a Sunday night in October 8, 1871. The location that these roaring flames initiated from, was the place on 137 De Koven Street at the O'Leary family little barn. Misdirected fire equipment arrived too late, and a steady wind from the southwest carried the flames and blazing debris from block to block. The houses became kindling for the downtown conflagration, where even the supposedly fireproof stone and brick buildings exploded in flames as the destruction swept northward. This natural disaster would burn for the entirety of Sunday, all day Monday, and even into the early hours of Tuesday. The fire was supposedly started when a milk dairy cow kicked over a lantern, but some believe that it was from the striking of a meteor. Either way great devastation was concluded on Chicago. This year in history was also extremely

No one really know how or when the fire started but, Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn and started the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a meteor might have been responsible for the event for one that was a huge problem not knowing how it started but also the fact that no help was sent until after the fire had already started to spread. Neighbors tried contacting the fire department but called the wrong one so no help or warning was made before the disaster. The fire burned wildly throughout the following day, finally coming under control on October 10, when rain gave a needed boost to firefighting efforts. The Great Chicago Fire left an estimated 300 people dead and 100,000 others homeless. More than 17,000 structures were destroyed and damages were estimated at $200