The Great Chicago Fire was a
conflagration that burned in the American city of
Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless.
The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration. The fire leapt the south branch of the
Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then leapt the main branch of the river, consuming the
Near North Side.
Help flowed to the city from near and far after the fire. The
city government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...
improved building codes to stop the rapid spread of future fires and rebuilt rapidly to those higher standards. A donation from the
United Kingdom spurred the establishment of the
Chicago Public Library.
Origin
The fire is claimed to have started at about 8:30 p.m. on October 8, in or around a small barn belonging to the O'Leary family that bordered the alley behind 137 W.
DeKoven Street. The shed next to the barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire. City officials never determined the cause of the blaze,
but the rapid spread of the fire due to a long drought in that year's summer, strong winds from the southwest, and the rapid destruction of the water pumping system, explain the extensive damage of the mainly wooden city structures. There has been much speculation over the years on a single start to the fire. The most popular tale blames
Mrs. O'Leary's cow, who allegedly knocked over a lantern; others state that a group of men were gambling inside the barn and knocked over a lantern.
Still other speculation suggests that the blaze was related to
other fires in the Midwest that day.
The fire's spread was aided by the city's use of wood as the predominant building material in a style called
balloon frame. More than two-thirds of the structures in Chicago at the time of the fire were made entirely of wood, with most of the houses and buildings being topped with highly flammable
tar or
shingle
Shingle may refer to:
Construction
*Roof shingles or wall shingles, including:
**Wood shingle
***Shake (shingle), a wooden shingle that is split from a bolt, with a more rustic appearance than a sawed shingle
***Quercus imbricaria, or shingle oak ...
roofs. All of the city's sidewalks and many roads were also made of wood.
Compounding this problem, Chicago received only of rain from July 4 to October 9, causing severe
drought conditions before the fire, while strong southwest winds helped to carry flying embers toward the heart of the city.
In 1871, the
Chicago Fire Department
The Chicago Fire Department (CFD) provides fire suppression, rescue services, Hazardous Materials Response services and emergency medical response services to the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chi ...
had 185
firefighter
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
s with just 17 horse-drawn
steam pumper
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
s to protect the entire city.
The initial response by the fire department was timely, but due to an error by the watchman, Matthias Schaffer, the firefighters were initially sent to the wrong place, allowing the fire to grow unchecked.
An alarm sent from the area near the fire also failed to register at the courthouse where the fire watchmen were, while the firefighters were tired from having fought numerous small fires and one large fire in the week before. These factors combined to turn a small barn fire into a conflagration.
Spread
When firefighters finally arrived at DeKoven Street, the fire had grown and spread to neighboring buildings and was progressing toward the central business district. Firefighters had hoped that the South Branch of the Chicago River and an area that had previously thoroughly burned would act as a natural
firebreak.
All along the river, however, were lumber yards, warehouses, and coal yards, and barges and numerous bridges across the river. As the fire grew, the southwest wind intensified and became superheated, causing structures to catch fire from the heat and from burning debris blown by the wind. Around midnight, flaming debris blew across the river and landed on roofs and the South Side Gas Works.
With the fire across the river and moving rapidly toward the heart of the city, panic set in. About this time, Mayor
Roswell B. Mason sent messages to nearby towns asking for help. When the courthouse caught fire, he ordered the building to be evacuated and the prisoners jailed in the basement to be released. At 2:30 a.m. on the 9th, the cupola of the courthouse collapsed, sending the great bell crashing down.
Some witnesses reported hearing the sound from a mile (1.6 km) away.
As more buildings succumbed to the flames, a major contributing factor to the fire's spread was a meteorological phenomenon known as a
fire whirl
A fire whirl or fire devil (sometimes referred to as a fire tornado) is a whirlwind induced by a fire and often (at least partially) composed of flame or ash. These start with a whirl of wind, often made visible by smoke, and may occur when inte ...
. As overheated air rises, it comes into contact with cooler air and begins to spin, creating a tornado-like effect. These fire whirls are likely what drove flaming debris so high and so far. Such debris was blown across the main branch of the
Chicago River to a
railroad car
A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...
carrying
kerosene.
The fire had jumped the river a second time and was now raging across the city's north side.
Despite the fire spreading and growing rapidly, the city's firefighters continued to battle the blaze. A short time after the fire jumped the river, a burning piece of timber lodged on the roof of the city's
waterworks. Within minutes, the interior of the building was engulfed in flames and the building was destroyed. With it, the city's water mains went dry and the city was helpless.
The fire burned unchecked from building to building, block to block.
Finally, late into the evening of October 9, it started to rain, but the fire had already started to burn itself out. The fire had spread to the sparsely populated areas of the north side, having thoroughly consumed the densely populated areas.
Aftermath
Once the fire had ended, the smoldering remains were still too hot for a survey of the damage to be completed for many days. Eventually, the city determined that the fire destroyed an area about long and averaging wide, encompassing an area of more than .
Destroyed were more than of roads, of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property,
which was about a third of the city's valuation in 1871.
On October 11, 1871, General
Philip H. Sheridan came quickly to the aid of the city and was placed in charge by a proclamation, given by mayor
Roswell B. Mason:
"The Preservation of the Good Order and Peace of the city is hereby intrusted to Lieut. General P.H. Sheridan, U.S. Army."
To protect the city from looting and violence, the city was put under
martial law for two weeks under Gen. Sheridan's command structure with a mix of regular troops, militia units, police, and a specially organized civilian group "First Regiment of Chicago Volunteers." Former Lieutenant-Governor William Bross, and part owner of the ''Tribune'', later recollected his response to the arrival of Gen. Sheridan and his soldiers:
"Never did deeper emotions of joy overcome me. Thank God, those most dear to me and the city as well are safe."
For two weeks Sheridan's men patrolled the streets, guarded the relief warehouses, and enforced other regulations. On October 24 the troops were relieved of their duties and the volunteers were mustered out of service.
Of the approximately
324,000 inhabitants of Chicago in 1871, 90,000 Chicago residents (1 in 3 residents) were left homeless. 120 bodies were recovered, but the death toll may have been as high as 300. The county
coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
speculated that an accurate count was impossible, as some victims may have drowned or had been incinerated, leaving no remains.
In the days and weeks following the fire, monetary donations flowed into Chicago from around the country and abroad, along with donations of food, clothing, and other goods. These donations came from individuals, corporations, and cities. New York City gave $450,000 along with clothing and provisions,
St. Louis gave $300,000, and the
Common Council of London gave 1,000 guineas, as well as £7,000 from private donations. In
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, Scotland (pop. 40,000) a town meeting raised £518 on the spot.
Cincinnati,
Cleveland, and
Buffalo, all commercial rivals, donated hundreds and thousands of dollars.
Milwaukee, along with other nearby cities, helped by sending fire-fighting equipment. Food, clothing and books were brought by train from all over the continent. Mayor Mason placed the
Chicago Relief and Aid Society in charge of the city's relief efforts.
Operating from the
First Congregational Church, city officials and
aldermen began taking steps to preserve order in Chicago.
Price gouging was a key concern, and in one ordinance, the city set the price of bread at 8¢ for a loaf. Public buildings were opened as places of refuge, and saloons closed at 9 in the evening for the week following the fire. Many people who were left homeless after the incident were never able to get their normal lives back since all their personal papers and belongings burned in the conflagration.
After the fire, A. H. Burgess of London proposed an "English Book Donation", to spur a free library in Chicago, in their sympathy with Chicago over the damages suffered.
Libraries in Chicago had been private with membership fees. In April 1872, the City Council passed the ordinance to establish the free
Chicago Public Library, starting with the donation from the United Kingdom of more than 8,000 volumes.
The fire also led to questions about development in the United States. Due to Chicago's rapid expansion at that time, the fire led to Americans reflecting on industrialization. Based on a religious point of view, some said that Americans should return to a more old-fashioned way of life, and that the fire was caused by people ignoring traditional morality. On the other hand, others believed that a lesson to be learned from the fire was that cities needed to improve their building techniques.
Frederick Law Olmsted observed that poor building practices in Chicago were a problem:
[
]Chicago had a weakness for "big things", and liked to think that it was outbuilding New York. It did a great deal of commercial advertising in its house-tops. The faults of construction as well as of art in its great showy buildings must have been numerous. Their walls were thin, and were overweighted with gross and coarse misornamentation.
Olmsted also believed that with brick walls, and disciplined firemen and police, the deaths and damage caused would have been much less.
Almost immediately, the city began to rewrite its fire standards, spurred by the efforts of leading insurance executives, and fire-prevention reformers such as Arthur C. Ducat
Arthur Charles Ducat, Sr. (February 24, 1830 – January 29, 1896) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the Civil War, Ducat was an insurance industry executive and fire prevention specialist.
Biography
Ducat ...
. Chicago soon developed one of the country's leading fire-fighting forces.
Business owners, and land speculators such as Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, quickly set about rebuilding the city. The first load of lumber for rebuilding was delivered the day the last burning building was extinguished. By the World's Columbian Exposition 22 years later, Chicago hosted more than 21 million visitors. The Palmer House hotel burned to the ground in the fire 13 days after its grand opening. Its developer, Potter Palmer, secured a loan and rebuilt the hotel to higher standards, across the street from the original, proclaiming it to be "The World's First Fireproof Building".
In 1956, the remaining structures on the original O'Leary property at 558 W. DeKoven Street were torn down for construction of the Chicago Fire Academy, a training facility for Chicago firefighters, known as the Quinn Fire Academy or Chicago Fire Department Training Facility. A bronze sculpture of stylized flames, entitled ''Pillar of Fire'' by sculptor Egon Weiner
Egon Weiner (1906 – August 1, 1987) was a Chicago sculptor and longtime professor (1945–1971) at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was known for a abstract bronze sculpture''Pillar of Fire'' which can be found on the grounds of the Chicago F ...
, was erected on the point of origin in 1961.
Surviving structures
The following structures from the burned district are still standing:
* St. Michael's Church, Old Town
* Chicago Water Tower
* Chicago Avenue Pumping Station
*St. Ignatius College Prep.
*Police Constable Bellinger's cottage at 21 Lincoln Place (2121 North Hudson, today).
*2323 and 2339 North Cleveland Avenue also survived the blaze.
St. Michael's Church and the Pumping Station were both gutted in the fire, but their exteriors survived, and the buildings were rebuilt using the surviving walls. Additionally, though the inhabitable portions of the building were destroyed, the bell tower of St. James Cathedral survived the fire and was incorporated into the rebuilt church. The stones near the top of the tower are still blackened from the soot and smoke.
Panorama of damage
Precise start
Almost from the moment the fire broke out, various theories about its cause began to circulate. The most popular and enduring legend maintains that the fire began in the O'Leary barn as Mrs. O’Leary was milking her cow. The cow kicked over a lantern (or an oil lamp in some versions), setting fire to the barn. The O'Leary family denied this, stating that they were in bed before the fire started, but stories of the cow began to spread across the city. Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat
In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
: she was a poor, Irish Catholic immigrant. During the latter half of the 19th century, anti-Irish sentiment
Anti-Irish sentiment includes oppression, persecution, discrimination, or hatred of Irish people as an ethnic group or a nation. It can be directed against the island of Ireland in general, or directed against Irish emigrants and their descendan ...
was strong throughout the United States and in Chicago. This was intensified as a result of the growing political power of the city's Irish population. Furthermore, the United States had been distrustful of Catholics (or papists, as they were often called) since its beginning, carrying over attitudes in England in the 17th century; as an Irish Catholic, Mrs. O'Leary was a target of both anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiment. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out, and it was noted in the '' Chicago Tribunes first post-fire issue. In 1893 the reporter Michael Ahern retracted the "cow-and-lantern" story, admitting it was fabricated, but even his confession was unable to put the legend to rest. Although the O'Learys were never officially charged with starting the fire, the story became so engrained in local lore that Chicago's city council officially exonerated them—and the cow—in 1997.
Amateur historian Richard Bales has suggested the fire started when Daniel "Pegleg" Sullivan, who first reported the fire, ignited hay in the barn while trying to steal milk. Part of Bales's evidence includes an account by Sullivan, who claimed in an inquiry before the Fire Department of Chicago on November 25, 1871, that he saw the fire coming through the side of the barn and ran across DeKoven Street to free the animals from the barn, one of which included a cow owned by Sullivan's mother. Bales's account does not have consensus. The Chicago Public Library staff criticized his account in their web page on the fire. Despite this, the Chicago city council was convinced of Bales's argument and stated that the actions of Sullivan on that day should be scrutinized after the O'Leary family was exonerated in 1997.
Anthony DeBartolo reported evidence in two articles of the ''Chicago Tribune'' (October 8, 1997, and March 3, 1998, reprinted in ''Hyde Park Media'') suggesting that Louis M. Cohn may have started the fire during a craps game. Following his death in 1942, Cohn bequeathed $35,000 which was assigned by his executors to the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The bequest was given to the school on September 28, 1944, and the dedication contained a claim by Cohn to have been present at the start of the fire. According to Cohn, on the night of the fire, he was gambling in the O'Learys' barn with one of their sons and some other neighborhood boys. When Mrs. O'Leary came out to the barn to chase the gamblers away at around 9:00, they knocked over a lantern in their flight, although Cohn states that he paused long enough to scoop up the money. The argument is not universally accepted.
An alternative theory, first suggested in 1882 by Ignatius L. Donnelly in '' Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel'', is that the fire was caused by a meteor shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extre ...
. This was described as a "fringe theory" concerning Biela's Comet. At a 2004 conference of the Aerospace Corporation and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, engineer and physicist Robert Wood suggested that the fire began when a fragment of Biela's Comet impacted the Midwest. Biela's Comet had broken apart in 1845 and had not been observed since. Wood argued that four large fires took place, all on the same day, all on the shores of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
(see Related Events), suggesting a common root cause. Eyewitnesses reported sighting spontaneous ignitions, lack of smoke, "balls of fire" falling from the sky, and blue flames. According to Wood, these accounts suggest that the fires were caused by the methane that is commonly found in comets. Meteorite
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...
s are not known to start or spread fires and are cool to the touch after reaching the ground, so this theory has not found favor in the scientific community. Methane-air mixtures become flammable only when the methane concentration exceeds 5%, at which point the mixtures also become explosive, a situation unlikely to occur from meteorites. Methane gas is lighter than air and thus does not accumulate near the ground; any localized pockets of methane in the open air rapidly dissipate. Moreover, if a fragment of an icy comet were to strike the Earth, the most likely outcome, due to the low tensile strength of such bodies, would be for it to disintegrate in the upper atmosphere, leading to an air burst
An air burst or airburst is the detonation of an explosive device such as an anti-personnel artillery shell or a nuclear weapon in the air instead of on contact with the ground or target. The principal military advantage of an air burst over ...
explosion analogous to that of the Tunguska event.
The specific choice of Biela's Comet does not match with the dates in question, as the 6-year period of the comet's orbit did not intersect that of the Earth until 1872, one full year after the fire, when a large meteor shower was indeed observed.
A common cause for the fires in the Midwest in late 1871 is that the area had suffered through a tinder-dry summer, so that winds from the front that moved in that evening were capable of generating rapidly expanding blazes from available ignition sources, which were plentiful in the region.
Related events
On that hot, dry, and windy autumn day, three other major fires occurred along the shores of Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire. Some to the north, the Peshtigo Fire consumed the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, along with a dozen other villages. It killed 1,200 to 2,500 people and charred approximately 1.5 million acres (6,000 km2). The Peshtigo Fire remains the deadliest in American history but the remoteness of the region meant it was little noticed at the time, due to the fact that one of the first things that burned were the telegraph lines to Green Bay.
Across the lake to the east, the town of Holland, Michigan, and other nearby areas burned to the ground. Some to the north of Holland, the lumbering community of Manistee also went up in flames in what became known as the Great Michigan Fire
The Great Michigan Fire was a series of simultaneous forest fires in the state of Michigan in the United States in 1871. They were possibly caused (or at least reinforced) by the same winds that fanned the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fir ...
.[
Farther east, along the shore of ]Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
, the Port Huron Fire swept through Port Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately.
Located along the St. Clair ...
and much of Michigan's "Thumb". On October 9, 1871, a fire swept through the city of Urbana, Illinois, south of Chicago, destroying portions of its downtown area. Windsor, Ontario, likewise burned on October 12.
The city of Singapore, Michigan
Singapore is a ghost town in Michigan, United States. It was a casualty of erosion after the surrounding woods were deforested—exacerbated by the need for lumber to rebuild several Midwestern cities and towns ravaged by fires in 1871. Its ...
, provided a large portion of the lumber to rebuild Chicago. As a result, the area was so heavily deforested that the land deteriorated into barren sand dunes that buried the town, and the town had to be abandoned.
In popular culture
* The University of Illinois at Chicago athletic teams are named the Flames since 1982, in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire.
* Although set in Philadelphia, Theodore Dreiser's 1912 novel ''The Financier
''The Financier'' is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on real-life streetcar tycoon Charles Yerkes. Dreiser started writing his manuscript in 1911, and the following year published the first part of his lengthy work as ''The Financier''. The s ...
'' portrays the nationwide impact the 1871 Chicago fire had on the stock markets and the financial world.
* The 1938 film '' In Old Chicago'' is centered on the fire, with a highly fictionalized portrayal of the O'Leary family as the main characters.
* In 1974, the Chicago Fire football team played in the short-lived World Football League
The World Football League (WFL) was an American football league that played one full season in 1974 and most of its second in 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest t ...
. Another Chicago Fire played in the American Football Association.
* Events of the 1986 novel ''Illinois!'' by Noel Gerson writing as Dana Fuller Ross occur around the Great Chicago Fire.
* The 1987 Williams pinball "Fire!" was inspired by the Great Chicago Fire.
* The 1995 book '' The Great Fire'' by Jim Murphy tells the story of the fire for children, and was a Newbery Honor book in 1996.
* A 1998 episode of the American television series '' Early Edition'' depicted Gary Hobson finding himself back in time in 1871 trying to prevent the fire. While he initially succeeds and stops the fire after the lantern is kicked over, subsequent events lead to the fire restarting, preserving the historical event while changing its origin.
* The Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
team Chicago Fire was founded on October 8, 1997, the 126th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.
* In 2014, the city of Chicago and Redmoon Theater partnered to create The Great Chicago Fire Festival. Held on October 4, 2014, the event fell victim to technical difficulties as replicas of 1871 houses on floating barges in the Chicago River failed to ignite properly due to electrical problems and heavy rain on the preceding days.
* The Beach Boys' instrumental track titled " Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" was inspired by the fabled cause of the Great Chicago Fire, and served as the representation for the classical element fire
Classical may refer to:
European antiquity
*Classical antiquity, a period of history from roughly the 7th or 8th century B.C.E. to the 5th century C.E. centered on the Mediterranean Sea
*Classical architecture, architecture derived from Greek and ...
on their abandoned project '' Smile''.
* Adopted on April 4, 1917, the Chicago flag represents the Great Chicago fire with one of the four red stars present on the flag.
See also
* Dwight L. Moody – 19th-century evangelist whose church was burned down in the fire
* Horatio Spafford – author of hymn " It Is Well With My Soul"
References
Further reading
*''Chicago and the Great Conflagration'' – Elias Colbert and Everett Chamberlin, 1871, 528 pp.
* ''History of the Great Fires in Chicago and the West''. Rev. Edgar J. Goodspeed
Edgar Johnson Goodspeed (October 23, 1871 – January 13, 1962) was an American theologian and scholar of Greek and the New Testament, and Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of the University of Chicago until his retirement. He ...
, D.D., 677 pp.
* Morris, Roy, Jr., ''Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan'', Crown Publishing, 1992, .
*"People & Events: The Great Fire of 1871"
The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Website
. Retrieved September 3, 2004.
*''The Great Conflagration'' – James W. Sheahan and George P. Upton, 1871, 458 pp.
*
*
*
* "Mrs. O'Leary's Comet: Cosmic Causes of the Great Chicago Fire" by Mel Waskin (1985)
External links
1996, Chicago Historical Society
Great Chicago Fire & the Web of Memory
{{Authority control
1871 fires in the United States
1871 in Illinois
Chicago
History of Chicago
Chicago Landmarks
Great Chicago Fire
1870s in Chicago
October 1871 events