Research Paper On The Chicago Fire Of 1871

On April 29, 1910, the largest forest fire in American history occurred. Some would come to know it as the Big Burn, or the Big Blowup. Later others called it the (the one that says it saved American landscape.) This travesty took more than 100 men. The impact it had on Americans was monumental. Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn, he writes about the many people who perished during this disaster. Stories of people who were engulfed by the flames at Bitterroot Mountain who had little chance of escaping their devastating fate. Even though this is still seen as a travesty, some look at it in a different way. Due to how large the fire was and how far it stretched, it made people aware of the importance to protect Americas forests and natural resources. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, reform was occurring. The United States population was on a rise which had an effect on economic growth. This caused expansion in the consumer market and made way for an enormous amount of advancement in technology. Due to all of this, the demand for natural resources vastly increased. Inventions such as cars and trains consumed massive amounts of fossil fuels. Wood was stripped away from forests to make comfort items such as chairs, tables and other items for the large number of families now setting in the United States from foreign countries. People did not seem to pay much attentions to the effects these changes were having on the land. However, President Theodor Roosevelt had

Chicago was very susceptible to be burned. Piles of lumber were stacked in preparation for the new building projects in 1871, before the fire. Over half of the streets in Chicago were paved with pine. Chicago also have wooden sidewalks along with their wooden buildings and streets. The weather in Chicago had been dry for a while leading up to the fire. Fires occurred

Historians know where the fire started but not how it started. The fire was started in the barn of the O'Leary family, starting with their barn door. It is known that the fire began there because the fire spotter saw flames coming from that direction. Murphy shows this in the text; "Schaffer signaled down the speaking tube and had his assistant strike Box 342. This sent engines rumbling through the streets — to a location almost a mile away from the O’Learys’ barn." (Jim Murphy, The Great Fire). That being said the O'leary family didn't know how it started either. Luckily, the new fire alarm system did help to alarm the rest of the city.

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.

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

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.

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

The Great Chicago Fire was one of the significant devastation that happened in the eighteenth century. Through this tragic event, hundreds of people died and thousands of buildings were completely destroyed in the fire. Before, the city was flourishing as more people traveled and decided to call Chicago their home. After the fire destroyed most of the surrounding area, people began blaming one another for the deaths of all the people. As time passed, Chicago slowly began to rebuild like never before. Although the city of Chicago continued to grow before the fire, after, the city boomed with the abundance of money and people. Moreover, because there was destruction, the people of Chicago, Illinois did not allow a fire to stop them from creating more opportunities for the future. The city has changed from the fire, but because of the help that was received, it was able to get rebuilt, and invite new individuals to explore the wondrous city of Chicago.

From there, a piece of debris was flown onto an oil tanker located across the river in the North Side. The North Side was ablaze. It was a terrible night for many of the residents of the city of Chicago and is one that will go down in infamy until the end of time. The final totals for the fire were at the minimum 300 deaths, 70,000 buildings burned to the ground, 100 thousand people forced to homelessness, 73 miles of street were incinerated, and 200 million dollars in damage.

Great Chicago Fire in 1871; “Big Burn” the Great Fire of 1910; Miramichi Fire; Oakland Firestorm of 1991; Cloquet Fire; Yellowstone 's 'Summer of Fire '; California 's Cedar Fire of 2003; 2004 Taylor Complex Fire; Great Hinckley Fire of 1894; and the 2007 California wildfires (Nelson, 2013).

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.

After the fire, new laws were enforced for new construction to use fireproof materials. An example of new materials used for construction included brick, stone, marble, and limestone. (Nat Geo Sites) To keep the materials from moving, builders started using mortar to keep buildings structurally intact. Terra cotta clay, another fireproof material, became popular because it was less costly. (Nat Geo Sites) For a stronger structure and another way for buildings to be fireproof, frames of buildings would be made out of steel. For an event like The Chicago Fire to never happen again, these fireproofing methods in new construction helped prevent future catastrophic events.

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

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