North Division Fire example essay topic

The exact particulars of the great Chicago Fire are unknown besides the fact that it started about 9 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, 1871. There have been persistent theories that the 1871 Fire was caused by a comet. The latest comet theory was proposed by physicist Robert Wood. He attributed the blazes to a fragment from Biel as comet. He stated that for large fires, all on the shores of Lake Michigan, took place on the same day.

But none of the comet theories has been accepted. Only regional weather conditions and the careless way the city has been built and managed remain the simplest explanation. A.T. Andreas, the citys leading historian of the 19th century said, "Nature had withheld her accustomed measure of prevention, and man had added to the peril by recklessness". Just before the Fire Chicago stroke many people as a titanic natural force in itself, unpredictable, unstoppable, all consuming and impossible to ignore. Several artists and photographers tried to get a fix on pre-fire Chicago.

The city consisted of the manufacturing East and the agricultural West. It was not a city that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was the city of an increasing flow of people, money, goods and information. Pre-fire Chicago had various enterprises: 17 grain elevators, 1100 factories, commercial exchanges, whole sale houses including the grocer 2 M. Hall in the five-story Lind block building, new State Street retail concerns and the Union Stock Yards, the city within a city (the Union Stock Yards passed over 3 million head of livestock through their gates in the year of the Fire).

The lakefront and the branches of the Chicago River divided the city into its North, South and West divisions, all busy with commercial traffic. Ten rail roads linked the coasts. The heart of the South Division, central business district, was the Courthouse. It contained all municipal and county offices and records as well as the jail. The current City Hall and County Building were on the same side. In the North Division Gothic Water Tower and Water Works were the most prominent In pre-fire Chicago one would notice certain position of dwellings and business: there was little separation between the homes of the Yankee elite and those of the German workers.

In the West Division homes and factories were very close to each other. For example, a laborer Patrick OLeary, his wife Catherine and their five children lived in the rooms of a wooden cottage. Behind their dwelling there was a barn from which Mrs. OLeary conducted her milk business. It was less than a mile from the center of the town. Across the river there was Conleys Patch, one of the most famous slum districts situated near the gas works.

There were some more things that promoted the Fire. They were: the endless stacks of raw lumber along the South Branch, wood-paved streets, 561 miles of wooden sidewalks and the tens of thousands of wooden structures. The autumn of October, 1871, was very hot, dry and windy. The mothers with their babies and little children came from slums to breath cool and fresh air from the Lake.

At night, when the tenements were stifling hot, men women, little children slept in the parks. Fires occurred in the preceding week. Taking into account all those circumstances the editors of the Chicago Tribute appealed several times to the Common Council to raise the level of fire protection to avoid disaster, but no efforts were made. As the result, the largest fire happened on Sunday evening. A series of technological and human failures in the alarm system did not allow firemen to contain the Sunday blaze.

The fire was driven by a strong wind from the south-west to the center of the city. Then it divided into separate parts and directed to the south branch of the Chicago River. Dividing yet again, it reached Conleys Patch and then the Courthouse Tower. The watchman escaped. The city officials released the prisoners from the basement. Thousands of people ran to the Northern Division, the Fire followed them.

The Fire reached the Rumsey homes on Huron Street and then a half- hour later it ruined the roof on the Pumping station, making any fire fighting efforts useless. Then the Fire returned to the South Division. The luxuries new Palma House and the offices of the Chicago Tribute collapsed. Terrace Row was one of the last South Division structures to fall. By noon, on Monday, the North Division Fire had reached North Avenue and then to Fullerton Avenue. On Tuesday morning a saving rain began to fall and flames finally died out.