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Great chicago fire
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The Cow That Started It All
Think of the most beautiful city in world. You are walking the streets, taking in the scenery in complete admiration of a city built by men. Then one day you go to sleep, a few hours later you awaken, and that beautiful city is completely destroyed. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history (“The Great Chicago”). After many failed attempts to put out the fire, people were left homeless and helpless to rebuild their city. Thankfully, after every tragedy there is always a recovery.
To begin with, during the year of 1870 and 1871 Chicago was facing extreme drought. During that time period the city of Chicago was built mostly from wood, making everything extremely flammable. Richard Bales author of “The Great Chicago Fire” states in an online article, “October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.” Although we are not certain what and how the fire started, we know that it quickly spread. Legends say that the O’Leary’s cow knocked over one of the fire lamps therefore starting this massive fire. You might be asking yourself, how is it possible for a small fire to spread so quickly? “Hot air rose from the flames and mixed with the cool air above it, creating convection whirls. Witnesses called them "fire devils." A fire devil could pick up a burning piece of wood and send it flying. New fires started where the flaming objects landed. (McHugh)” Firefighters were exhausted from fighting a large fire the night before; and were sent to the wrong neighborhood at first. After finally arrivin...
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...Reference Center. Web. 3 May 2014.
I found this article in the GCC database. I found it extremely helpful because I found direct numbers of the devastation. All other articles could not conform the area that was effected and I have found it in this article.
Rayfield, Jo Ann. "Tragedy in the Chicago Fire and Triumph in the Architectural Response." Tragedy in the Chicago Fire and Triumph in the Architectural Response. Illinois Periodicals Online, n.d. Web. 02 May 2014. .
Mrs. Rayfield wrote a great article about the devastation left over after this massive fire. I found that her accounts were very detailed and had good pictures to go along with them. I decided to use this source in my essay because she also showed the good effect that the fire had on the city not only the bad. She had a complete different point of view.
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.
Boston thought it was ready for any kind of disaster following a mock disaster management operation. Barely a week later, was Boston proved wrong, when a fire outbreak at the Cocoanut Grove claimed the lives of many patrons and maimed others for life. The date was 28 November 1942. The cause was a stray match that put aflame a decorative palm tree in the club. Additionally, the situation was aggravated by the blockage of the few emergency exits in the club. John Esposito explores the events surrounding this incident as well as its aftermath in the book Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and its Aftermath. This paper offers a review of the book, looking critically at the unfolding of the events as well as the author’s thoughts.
In the book Heat Wave A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, by Eric Klinenberg expose how a number of social, political, and economical factors created one of the largest and most traumatic events in recent history. The Chicago heat wave in 1995 was a disaster, which led to over 700 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a five days period creating. Most of the victims of the heat wave were poor elderly residents of the city, who didn’t have any relative or were neglected by the public officials and was unable to purchase air-conditioning units for their home. Most of the elderly isolated themselves and refused to open windows or sleep outside in fear of crime. Alot of lives were loss or in destress because of isolation, poverty and media who played a major role by portraying the countless deaths on the natural disaster and highlighting of negative activities especially in the urban area
In the 19th century, the population in Chicago was quickly rising to great numbers. In 1850, population reached a great 30,000. Areas in all parts of Chicago started to become extremely over crowded especially downtown. At this point, all structures were built out of wood including buildings, streets, and even sidewalks (“Chicago Fire of 1871”). About one hundred days before the great fire occurred, not even an inch of rain had fallen throughout the city, and heavy, strong winds were blowing through Southwest. Fires were a very common obstacle at the time, but nothing was even close to the fire of 1871. On October 8th, firemen received a call from the neighbor of Catherine O’Leary. Neighbors reported seeing a number of flames appearing from the cow barn. Firemen instantly spotted the fire but miscalculated how big it really was. This event became historically known as the Chicago Fire of 1871 (“People 7 Events”). The three effects of the Chicago Fire of 1871 were the financial and political
Fire played a very important role in the lives of the early Fond du Lac pioneers. It provided people with heat, light, and a means to cook. Almost every home in Fond du Lac had some sort of stove or fireplace. If a fire got out of control, that house and surrounding homes were in danger of burning down. As the town’s population grew larger and larger, the number of fire sources went up as well. The chances of a fire getting out of control were growing quickly. People soon began to fear the inevitable.
There are many contributing factors to Detroit’s fire epidemic, combinations of arson, poor fire prevention and education, and so on. “An arson epidemic, the closure of fire stations and failing hydrants have taken a heavy toll on Detroit’s neighborhoods. Between 2013 and 2015, fires broke out in more than 10,000 houses, apartments, businesses, churches, schools and other buildings in
sure,on the Sunday evening of October 8, 1871 a blaze started in Mrs. O' leary's
covers the area, causing people, animals, and structures to practically disintegrate. Even years afterwards people were still dying and having
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
Dry weather combined with many wooden buildings, sidewalks and streets were open to catching fire and eventually led to it happening (Chicago Fire, 1). The fire spread uncontrollably to the northeast and central of the city. The downtown and north of Chicago was taken in flames but the stockyards on the south and west were not touched by the fire (Fire of 1871, 2). 17,500 buildings have been destroyed, a total of 78 miles of pavements were covered in flames (Murphy, 100). That night the wind was at 30 miles per hour, but there were many whirl flames that traveled to and across the city (Great Chicago Fire, 2). Amid the day and age of the fire the populace was assessed roughly around 324,000 individuals. Inside nine years after the decimation the populace was 500,000 (Chicago Fire, 2). Before the tragic event of the fire, the summer of 1871 was extremely hot, and Chicago went threw a horrific drought. From July to the day of the fire there was only three inches of rainfall in Chicago. In fact, one night before the great downfall a different fire began that was battled out by all fire companies to compose it. Many residents felt that Chicago was saved from disaster after putting the fire to rest (The Great Fire, 2). There was a myth that mention that the fire started by a cow tipping over a lantern
Abstract: This essay is focused on how the Chicago fire and the ideas of Louis Sullivan were critical in the development of a new form of architecture in the United States and the societal and social influences that brought it all together.
Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire fighters went to nearly 600 fires. On Saturday night there had been a large fire that destroyed about four blocks and lasted for 16 hours. Another reason why everything in Chicago was so flammable was because almost the entire city was made out of wood. It was a lot worse in the middle class and poor sections of the town (19). Just about every house was made out of wood. Even buildings that claimed to be fire proof had wood roofs covered with tar. The richer part of town had stone and brick homes, but wooden interiors, wooden stables, and wooden storage buildings (Cromie, 81). Chicago was built on marshland and every time it rained the city flooded, so to help this problem the roads were made out of wood and elevated above the waterline. The day the fire started there were over 55 miles of pine-block street and 600 miles of wooden sidewalks. “Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn,” according to Jim Murphy, author of The Great Fire (Murphy, 18).
McCullough’s view is evident in the sub-title of his book. By placing the word “natural” within quotation marks, McCullough immediately suggests that the flood was unusual to any other, and implies that mankind has displaced its blame onto nature. McCullough explains how Johnstown became an example of ‘The Gilded Age’ industrialization prior to the 1889 disaster. The canal made Johnstown the busiest place in Cambria County in the 1820s. By the 1850s the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Company began, and the population increased.
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
Sunday September 2, 1666 at 2 a.m. was the day when the fire began (Cowie, 59). It had all began in a baker’s house due to a spark that was “left” in one of his ovens. ‘”, all that was needed was a spark. This was provided at the house of Thomas Farynor, the King’s baker in Pudding Lane…”’ (“London’s Burning: The Great Fire”, 1). In this area was known as a poor area and it was also very dirty. All the houses were made out of wood, which fed the fire and it started to spread. The baker’s house was the first house to burn down and that is also where the first tragedy took place. The wind was strong during this time and as it blew it would push the fire and help it spread through the city. The people started waking up due to the smell of the smoke and they tried to put the fire out as fast as they could. The fire fighters even tired to stop the fire but it was to big for one truck to handle. One of the residents ran to the Mayors house to warm him of what was happening. When told of what was happening, “…the L...