THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE I n October 1871, Chicago Illinois was built on wood. There was dry weather, and wooden buildings which made the city vulnerable to fires. The new city had drawn many people there, to start new work. Then one day a tragic fire struck the city. It’s still a mystery how the fire started, but some people have their own theories. A common legend told is that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary’s barn. Which started a blaze, and burned out of control because of the dry weather. The wrong fire department was called, which means it took longer for them to get there and put the fire out. Thus, by the time they got there the fire was spreading uncontrollably. A steady wind from the southwest carried the flames
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
their possessions in to the street. Both the west and south side were cover in
The two texts, “The Great Chicago Fire” by Julia Ann Moore, and the “fanny Boggs Lester” letter by Fanny Lester, both share the same theme. The authors argue that incredible devastation can be caused from trying to come back from a huge fire incident.
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.
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 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.
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).
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.
The history of fires goes back to the 17th century. They were called, “Fire buckets”. They came into existence because there was no fireman. Fire buckets were people organizing themselves like a human chain with buckets passing around. There was at least two to three buckets full of
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
On the date of October 8, 1871 the Great Chicago Fire was spreading through the city of Chicago. Rain was a big facture in the fire, there was no rain in the 2 weeks leading up to the fire. Plus before the fire, the people made most of the city of wood so all the dry wood was all flammable. Back then they really didn’t have a real fire department and the firefighters didn’t have a transportation system so they couldn’t get to a fire until late. The people didn’t take well care of the river nearby so the river was polluted.
Wesley G. Skogan; Susan M. Hartnett; Natalie Bump; Jill Dubois reported to National Criminal Justice Reference Service that Cease fire treated violence as Chicago had a 25% drop in killings, with a 50% drop in the Ceasefire zones. Since then Ceasefire has been active in 18 communities in Chicago and 7 communities in Illinois. The method has had an extensive multi-year multi-method evaluation supported by the U.S. Department of Justice a public health issue. The Institute of Nonviolence reports that their framework was driven by a national experiment by David Kennedy to reduce violence. Rachel A Davis reports that violence can undermine our community and is a horrible burden on our youth, families, and neighborhoods. Violence undermines the