The Chicago Fire

1
The Chicago Fire

• Ravi Jagadeesan, Avery Coonley.
• Pictures/Map from Chicago Fire Website

2
When Where the Great Chicago Fire Started

• Around 930 PM on October 8, 1871 in the OLeary
  barn, 137 DeKoven St., West Division

3
How the Great Chicago Fire Started

• The most common stories of how the FIRE
  started a cow knocking over a
  lantern, Catherine OLeary knocking over the
  lantern
• The most common stories are most likely untrue!

4
The Conditions on the day the Great Chicago Fire
Started

• Dry
• 2 fires per day
• 20 fires in the week before the FIRE biggest
  day before FIRE

• Flammable wooden houses, wooden sidewalks,
  wooden streets
• 65 mph wind!

5
What the Chicago Fire Destroyed

• 4.5 square miles, one-third of 1871 Chicago
• Burnt over 15 of the 16 bridges over the Chicago
  River
• Burnt over Chicago river because it burnt 2-3
  layer of oil on river

6
A. O'Leary barnB. Bateham's MillsC. Parmelee's
StablesD. Gas Works     Conley's PatchE. Court
HouseF. Wright's StablesG. Polk StreetH.
Northwestern ElevatorI. Galena Elevator
7
Damage Caused By the Fire

• 300 people died
• 100,000 people left homeless!
• 200 million in damage!

8
Ruins of the Business Center looking southwest
from Old Fort Dearborn. Explosion of Giant Powder
and fall of buildings in the front.
9
Wholesale District, looking west along the
Chicago River. River street in the very front.
The West Side in the distance.
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11
Burning of the North Division. Looking north up
Rush Street.
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Looking eastward. Mouth of Chicago River. Lake
Michigan. Many scared people escaping from the
Fire in boats.
14
Looking southeast. Burning of the Old United
States Marine Hospital. Rescuing the people who
live in a house or apartment
15
A Personal Letter
16
Dear Chum, We are burnt out of house and home
and so we had to come up here. I suppose you
would like to hear about the fire and how we
escaped from it. Half past one Monday morning we
were awakened by a loud knocking at the front
door we were awake in an instant and dressing
ourselves we looked about and saw a perfect
shower of sparks flying over our house. I got
some water and went out in the yard while my
brother went up on the roof we worked for one or
two hours at the end of that time we had to give
up. We tried to get a wagon but could not so we
put two trunks on a wheelbarrow and each of us
shouldered a bundle and we marched for the old
skating park I leading my goat. We got along very
well until the Peshtigo Lumber yard caught on
fire then it was all we could do to breathe.
Mother caught on fire once but we put it out at
last we heard that there was a little shanty that
hadn't burnt down so we marched there but had to
leave our trunks and everything else but Charlie
and father went back and got one but could not
get the other as the sand was blowing in their
faces and cut like glass at last a wagon drove up
and we all piled in and escaped so good by
yours Justin
17
How the Chicago Fire Ended

• Rain on Monday evening
• Fire end on Tuesday Morning

• Catherine OLeary was taken to court, but proven
  innocent
• OLeary House survived

18
Other Ways That the Fire Could Have Started

• Meteor showers A meteor shower, 14 small fires,
  and another big fire that night.

19

• Daniel Sullivan Dennis Regan
• Daniel Sullivan claims to have witnessed the
  start of the Great Chicago Fire, but couldnt
  have because his view of the OLeary barn would
  have been blocked by the house of James Dalton
• Sullivan Regan visited the OLeary House before
  the fire that night.

20
How Chicago Changed

• Chicago made less flammable -- houses made based
  on cement and bricks

• Chicago learned a big lesson the hard way