Great Chicago Fire of 1871

    Chicago was a city to burn during the 1870s. In the city of Chicago there was around 59,500 building now there are many more building in Chicago today. During the 1870s, 2/3 of the building in Chicago was constructed from wood. Even though some owners claims that their building were fire proof it was a lie. In the building behind the stone or brick exteriors there would be wooden frames and also the roofs of the building had very highly flammable tar or shingle roofs. To top all of the wooden building the cites roads and sidewalks were constructed from wood. Chicago was built on a soggy marshland and to cover this up sidewalks and roads were made out of wood and these roads and sidewalks were places several feet above the waterline, which was also hazardous. In Chicago there was 55 miles of pine block streets, 600 miles of wooden sidewalks bound the 23,000 acre city. By October 1871 around 6 fires would happen every day. A night before, October 7, 1871 a fire blazed through the city of Chicago and the fire destroyed 4 block and took 16 hours to control.

    The fire started a 9 o'clock p.m. on Sunday October 8 around 137 DeKoven Street. Nobody know how the fire was actually started but many theories are that a cow in the Patrick and Catherine O'Leary's barn had started the fire by knocking over a lighten lantern. The firefighter were extremely exhausted from fighting the fire the other day before but they still tried very hard to stop this fire as well. The fire spread until the first alarm at 9:40 p.m. to the fire department, when some pulled the fire alarm at a pharmacy store. Someone had told the fire department that the fire was small and they gave the direction to the fire in the opposite direction, which allowed the fire to blaze even more. The fire raged through out the city burning down hotels, restaurants, stores, theaters, churches, buildings and hundred of homes. Many people went to the shore of Lake Michigan with buckets and they filled water from the lake and poured the water of the fire but there was no luck. Chicago's mayor Robert B. Mason aided for help from other cities and towns by sending urgent telegrams. Aid came from Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Dayton, Louisville, Detroit, Port Huron, Bloomington, Springfield, Janesville, Allegheny, and Pittsburgh. Many new firefighter and The fire continued to blaze through Monday. The water supply was cut and there was no way to get water unless the firefighter were near the Chicago River or Lake Michigan. Anything the firefighters or citizens of Chicago tried to do to stop the fire nothing worked. Then at 11 o'clock p.m. on Monday October 9 rain started to fall and the fire was finally taken out on, October 10 around 3 o'clock a.m.

    There was great devastation through out the city of Chicago. The old town was now leveled. 300 people were killed in the fire and 100,000 people were left homeless. The smoldering from the fire was too hot to even touch for days even after the fire had been taken out. Once the damage the was accessed the results came out to be the fire destroyed and area about 4 miles long and 3/4 miles wide which is more than 2,000 acres of land. The fire destroyed more than 73 miles of roads, 120 miles  of sidewalk, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property. After the fire 125 bodies were recovered but the total casualties is around 300 people. From the 300,000 people living in Chicago after the fire 100,00 were left homeless. Chicago also got it's nickname of the second city from this event because gave Chicago an opportunity to rebuild it's city this time not of wood.