Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire ( - 大火災, English: Great Chicago Fire) was a large fire that broke out in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, from Saturday, October 8, 1871, to Tuesday, October 10. The fire killed nearly 300 people, burned an area of 9 km² of Chicago, and left more than 100,000 people homeless.¹ It was the largest fire disaster in the United States in the 19th century. Although the central district of Chicago was completely destroyed, the city grew through rebuilding after the fire into one of the largest economic centers in the United States. On the same day as this fire, a great fire also broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, burning the northern part of Green Bay.

Origin

The fire began at about 9 p.m. on October 8 in a barn owned by the O'Leary family, located in the alley behind 137 DeKoven Street.² It is presumed that the fire spread after the barn caught fire and the adjacent shed then began to burn, but city officials have not been able to determine the exact cause of the fire.³ Because of this, for many years there has been much speculation about the cause of the Great Chicago Fire. The most famous hypothesis is that O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern and started the fire. Another hypothesis is that men gambling inside the barn accidentally dropped a lantern and caused the fire. Various other hypotheses also exist, including one that the fire was related to fires in the Midwest that occurred on the same day.

The reasons the fire spread so rapidly were that most buildings in Chicago at the time were wooden structures built with balloon framing, the area had been extremely dry before the fire, and a strong southeast wind was blowing toward the city center. More than two-thirds of the buildings in Chicago were wooden. In addition, most houses and buildings had flammable tar roofs, and numerous sidewalks and roads were also made of wood.⁴ Furthermore, Chicago was very dry, with less than 1 inch (2.54 cm) of rain falling from July 4 to October 9.