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. Chicago, Illinois was a popular city in the early United States. Chicago was a center for trade due to the water sources running through it. The two rivers located in Chicago, the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, connected the city to the Mississippi river and Lake Michigan. Railroads through Chicago also helped it become a transportation center in the United States. Thousands of immigrants came to Chicago every year. Settlers and visitors arrived constantly by wagon, ship, or even train. There were around ten railroads that congregated in the city. Many people saw Chicago as a great opportunity. Merchants, tradesmen, and business from the East Coast scrambled to the new businesses opportunities in the city. In 1870, only one year before the Great Fire, around 300,000 people lived in Chicago. 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
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 great Chicago fire was a fire that burned through the city of Chicago rapidly, leaving hundreds of people homeless and some dead. On the night of October 8th, 1871 a fire started in the barn of Cathrine and Patrick Oleary quickly spreading out.
It was October 8, 1871, Chicago was a city ready to burn. It was a Sunday night, the fire would burn for the rest of Sunday, all of Monday, and into the early hours of Tuesday with really “little opposition”. This day was not going to be a good day. In Jim Murphy’s book, The Great Fire, the author gives all the evidence to show that Chicago was “ready to burn”.
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 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.
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.
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a large part of Chicago's history. Destroying most of the city, the fire went on for two days and was uncontrolled. Though fire fighting and alarms were great for the time, multiple mistakes cause the fire to go wild. It is unknown how it started but it was spread by dry winds and a mostly wooden city.
The Chicago Fire completed destroyed the city of Chicago, including all buildings, crops, and killed at least 1,200 people, which was the first
Throughout the mid 1800´s Chicago was undergoing substantial growth. The city had a population of 30,000 in 1850 and within 30 years had grown to nearly 90,000. Middle class individuals settled the outskirts of the city expanding it's borders. Lower class individuals continued to settle in the downtown districts. This resulted in an extremely dense concentration of people and wooden structures which would contribute to the extensive damage caused by the fire.
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).
their possessions in to the street. Both the west and south side were cover in
Chicago from the1920s through the 1940s was the melting pot of America, with its multitude of vastly different people and different types of housing and living conditions. Around the early 1920s in Chicago, 80 percent of the undeveloped city were immigrants from Europe and their children. A majority of the houses in Chicago in the 1920s were set up to improve immigrants’ living conditions. These houses were often large complexes in which immigrants lived together in and were provided meals and tutoring in English. After World War I ended in 1918, many people moved from small rural communities in the Midwest to Chicago. This resulted in the construction of many large apartment buildings in place of old townhouses. In large cities like Chicago,
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)
In october 8,1871 on a sunday night their was the biggest fire that happened in chicago. The whole town was ready to burn down. Most of the things happened because of what the people did. By the way the whole town was made of wood and wood catches on fire very easy. Things got bad when the cow kicked over the lantern while Catherine O’leary was milking the cow . So the firefighters came and put that fire down than it all started.
(Chicago, IL) – The Chicago Fire Department was dispatched to the fire this morning around 1 A.M. to the alley behind 137 Dekoven Street where the small barn was found to be completely destroyed by the fire. About 10 hours later, the fire rages to burn out of control, and it is spreading to the center are of the city. We have already deployed all of our 185 firefighters and 17 horse-drawn steam engines on scene and protect the whole city. In addition, we are working together with the EMS and Department of Transportation to evacuate residents and transport the wounded in order to save more lives. We don’t have enough first responders and machines to respond to the great fire, however, we are trying our best to rescue people in the affect area