Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire of October 8–9, 1871, is the best recalled of the citywide conflagrations of the 19th- and early-20th-century United States. It devastated the greatest city of the American West, left its mark in popular culture, and helped to bring about farreaching changes in fire codes, construction, and insurance pricing. Despite the magnitude of the destruction, Chicago quickly rebuilt and continued its rapid growth.

Fire was the great scourge of American cities of the period. Haphazard construction of closely spaced buildings entirely or partly of wood; the use of coal, kerosene, and gas fuels; inadequate water supplies; and limited firefighting capabilities produced highly combustible environments. Other cities that suffered great blazes include New York (1835), Charleston (1837), St. Louis (1849), Portland, Maine (1866), Boston (1872), Baltimore (1904), and San Francisco (earthquake and fire, 1906).

In the three decades before the Great Fire, Chicago had grown from a small outpost into a major metropolis. The city had 298,977 residents in the Census of 1870, making it the fifthlargest American city. With its 10 railroads and its thriving industries, including lumber, meatpacking, and manufacturing, Chicago was a major commercial center.

Chicago in 1871 was primarily a wooden city. Most homes were built of wood and stood closely together. The majority of sidewalks were also wood, with many streets paved in wood as well. Even some of the grander marble and stone structures in the wealthier sections of town were in fact wood structures with facades.

The weeks before the fire were extremely dry. In the first week of October, the fire department fought 20 fires, including one the night of Saturday, October 7, that consumed 20 acres of lumberyards and coal yards. The Great Fire began as a small blaze the next evening in the city's Western Division, where homes were crowded around factories.

The most enduring tale of the fire is the story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which supposedly started the fire in a barn by kicking over a lantern. The wife of a laborer and mother of five children, Catherine O'Leary ran a neighborhood milk business out of her barn. While the fire probably started in the barn or its vicinity, some historians have suggested that Mrs. O'Leary, as an Irishcatholic immigrant, may have served as a convenient scapegoat. The press typically depicted her either as a comical figure or as a drunk and a welfare cheat. For years after the fire, Mrs. O'Leary refused to speak with journalists, which failed to deter many from simply concocting stories about her. Other identities have been suggested for the culprit, including an O'Leary neighbor, boys smoking in the barn, and even a meteor.

Whatever its cause, the blaze quickly swept out of the Western Division toward the city center, pushed by a southwest wind. As the wind gained force, the fire became unstoppable, skipping from structure to structure, moving in different directions. The fire engulfed lumberyards, rail yards, and grain elevators before crossing the Chicago River. It spread from house to house through the city's South Division, until it reached a gasworks, which exploded. As it spread to the north and east, the fire consumed some of the city's finer homes and business structures.

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