The Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed a major American city, making it one of the great disasters of the 19th century. And while the famous story of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow starting the blaze by kicking over a lantern is most likely not true, that legend stuck in the public mind and holds fast to this day. The fire that destroyed Chicago raged from Sunday night, October 8, 1871 until the early hours of Tuesday, October 10, 1871.






















In approximately 30 hours at least 300 people had been killed and thousands of buildings had been destroyed. And the destruction was not limited to the growing city's hastily constructed neighborhoods of immigrants. Chicago's business center was also destroyed, with its hotels, department stores, newspapers, and government offices reduced to smoking ruins. The summer of 1871 was very hot and the city of Chicago suffered under a brutal drought. From early July to the outbreak of the fire in October less than three inches of rain fell on the city and most of that was in brief showers. The heat and lack of sustained rainfall put the city in a precarious position as Chicago consisted almost entirely of wooden structures. Lumber was plentiful in the American Midwest in the mid-1800s, and Chicago was essentially built of timber. Construction regulations and fire codes were widely ignored. Large sections of the city housed poor immigrants in shabbily constructed shanties, and even the houses of more prosperous citizens tended to be made of wood. A sprawling city virtually made of wood drying out in a prolonged drought did inspire fears. In early September, a month before the Great Chicago Fire, the city’s most prominent newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, criticized the city for being made of “firetraps,” adding that many structures were “all sham and shingles.” On the night before the Great Chicago Fire a major fire broke out that was battled by all the city’s fire companies. When that blaze was brought under control it seemed that Chicago had been saved from a major disaster. And then on Sunday night, October 8, 1871, a fire was spotted in a barn owned by an Irish immigrant family named O’Leary. Alarms were sounded, and a fire company which had just returned from battling the previous night's fire responded. There was considerable confusion in dispatching other fire companies and valuable time was lost. Perhaps the fire at the O’Leary barn could have been contained if the first company responding had not been exhausted or if other companies had been dispatched to the correct location. Within a half-hour of the first reports of the fire at O’Leary’s barn the fire had spread to nearby barns and sheds and then to a church, which quickly ignited. At that point there was no hope of controlling the inferno, and the fire began its destructive march northward toward the heart of Chicago. The conditions were perfect for the fire to spread, and once it went beyond the immediate neighborhood of O’Leary’s barn it accelerated quickly. Burning embers landed on furniture factories and grain storage elevators, and soon the blaze began to consume everything in its path. Fire companies tried their best to contain the fire but when the city’s waterworks were destroyed the battle was over. The only response to the fire was to try to flee and tens of thousands of Chicago's citizens did. It has been estimated that a quarter of the city’s approximately 330,000 residents took to the streets carrying what they could in a mad panic. A massive wall of flame 100 feet high advanced through city blocks. Survivors told harrowing stories of strong winds pushed by the fire spewing burning embers so that it looked as if it was raining fire. By the time the sun rose on Monday morning large parts of Chicago were already burned to the ground. Wooden buildings had simply disappeared into piles of ash. Sturdier buildings of brick or stone were charred ruins. The fire burned throughout Monday and was finally dying out when rain began on Monday evening, finally extinguishing it in the early hours of Tuesday. The wall of flame that destroyed the center of Chicago leveled a corridor about four miles long and more than a mile wide. The damage to the city was nearly impossible to comprehend. Virtually all government buildings were burned to the ground, as were the newspapers, hotels, and any just about any major business. Approximately 120 bodies were recovered, but it was estimated that more than 300 people died. It's believed that many bodies were entirely consumed by the intense heat. The cost of destroyed property was estimated at $190 million. More than 17,000 buildings were destroyed, and more than 100,000 people were left homeless.
News of the fire traveled quickly by telegraph, and within days newspaper artists and photographers descended upon the city, recording the massive scenes of destruction. Relief efforts were mounted, and the US Army took control of the city, placing it under martial law. Cities in the east sent contributions and even President Ulysses S. Grant sent $1,000 from his personal funds to the relief effort.
While the Great Chicago Fire was one of the major disasters of the 19th century and a profound blow to the city, the city was rebuilt fairly quickly. And with the rebuilding came better construction and much stricter fire codes. Indeed, the bitter lessons of the Great Chicago Fire affected how other cities were managed.

The legend took hold that the fire had started when a cow being milked by Mrs. O’Leary had kicked over a kerosene lantern, igniting hay in the O’Leary barn. Years later a newspaper reporter admitted to having made up that story, but to this day the legend of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow endures. And while the story of Mrs. O'Leary and her cow persists, the real culprits in the Great Chicago Fire were a long summer drought and a sprawling city built of wood.