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The great Chicago fire
The great Chicago fire
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On Sunday, October 18, 1871 the largest fire Chicago has ever seen broke out. Hundreds died and thousands of homes were annihilated. Devistation towered over the city, ashes floated gracefully through the air as bodies, houses and cherished items burned. People ran in fear, holding their young, crying for the gone, searching for saftey. Searching for life. Searching for hope.
The past few weeks had been hot, dry, and rainless. A drought. Rain had not fallen for three months. Though, despite the drought, the O’Leary family had been having an exceptional October. The O’Leary family consisted of Mrs. O’Leary, her husband and 5 children. Mr. O’Leary worked as a laborer, as Mrs. O’Leary kept with the cows and the children. The family was on welfare, but were livng pretty fair lives, and Mrs. O’Leary was selling fresh milk on the side. A small way to make some more money for her family.
Later in the night, Lady O’Leary had been milking her cows and decided to come in and call it a night. She left the barn and headed into her home and began getting ready for her slumber. As the family slept peacefully a fire broke out. It broke out in the barn of their home. Caused by Mrs. O’Leary and her cow. The cow had kicked over an oil lantern left in the barn by the woman. The fire would be her fault, and the fault would come with many deaths and hate.
People around the city went to bed, everything seemed relatively normal. Smoke dwindling into the dark night sky, the faint smell of burning wood. All normal for Chicago. Fires were a daily part of life for this wooden city. Near the time of 2 a.m. the fire didn’t seem so normal and average anymore. A mean flame was being born, it was blazing to life.
This fire would burn ...
... middle of paper ...
...on dollars in damage. This showed the people of Chicago that what really mattered wasn’t the buildings or the items the city held, but the people. If it hadn’t been for them then Chicago would still be in ruins from that terrible day.
Works Cited
"Did the Great Chicago Fire Really Start with Mrs. O'Leary's Cow?" HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
"The Great Chicago Fire: Chicago Is Burning!" Http://chicagohistory.org/mychicago/pdf/lesson3.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web.
"The Great Chicago Fire: Chicago Is Burning!" N.p., n.d. Web.
"The Great Chicago Fire." The Great Chicago Fire. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.
"The Great Chicago Fire." The Great Chicago Fire. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
McHugh, Janet. The Great Chicago Fire. New York: Bearport, 2007. Print.
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. New York: Scholastic, 1995. Print.
PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
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As of today, the city of Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, right behind New York and Los Angles. It is home to more 3 million people, but this was not always the case. When the city was created in 1833, it only "coveted less than half a square mile on either side of the main channel of the Chicago River and contained only 350 adventurous inhabitants, mostly male." (Abu-Lughod 49). As the years went on the city continued to grow and by 1870 its "economic base had evolved considerably" (51). However, the following year Chicago suffered a disaster that ultimately destroyed the city. This event is known as the Great Chicago Fire. The fire is said to have begun in a small farm owned by Catherine and Patrick O'Leary and lasted for 36 hours. The fire destroyed more than 18,000 buildings, leaving around 99,000 of the city’s residents homeless, and killed more than 300 people. Despite the destruction of almost the entire city, Chicago was able to rebuild and reestablish itself as a place that offered opportunities, and a future. Although Chicago continued to grow rapidly, the US entered an economic depression in 1893. Luckily for the country, this was the very year that Chicago had been selected to host the 1893 World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. This fair gave not only the city of Chicago, but also the US, an opportunity to show the world what this nation was capable of creating and building.
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Fire has become less a means of human survival and more of a form of entertainment. This world of shallow hedonistic people strives to be the same and the word “intelligence” is considered a dirty word. This society maintains a focus on a certain equality, where people born unequal made equal. Funerals for the dead are eliminated due to the sadness they bring and death is forgotten about quickly, with bodies being incinerated without a proper ceremony. Fire is idolized by this society and is considered the means to cleanliness.
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).
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
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.
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
In 1968 the United States of America was participating in a violent war that some of the general public greatly disapproved of. Tension between political parties was rising and this did not help efforts with the war. Anti-war sentiment was growing in popularity amongst the younger generation; they wanted to get their voices heard. Protest and riots were occurring more frequently and growing larger in size all throughout the United States. This was the case for a certain eight Chicago men who protested peacefully. The case that followed their arrest became known as the Chicago seven trials. Originally it was the Chicago eight until one of the members, Bobby Seale, was bound and gagged in court ordered by Judge Julius Hoffman (Rubin web). This displayed one of the many mistreatments of the members of the Chicago Seven throughout the case. The case became a highly publicized spectacle throughout the nation. In retrospect the case is noted as a great injustice and an example of abusive power in the Chicago court system at the time.
What caused the Great Chicago fire to burn out of control? Well its not just one thing it was many mistakes adding one after another, although the after math of everything was kind of a new beginning . I know how does a fire that killed about 300 and left 100000 home less supposed to have a good ending well let me explain.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18th, 1906, the California city of San Francisco was awoken by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Chaos erupted with the earthquake leading to fire break outs throughout San Francisco (Cameron and Gordon. Pgs 69-73).The earthquake and the resulting fires caused destruction to majority of the city with buildings crumbling and igniting into flames. Many people died along with thousands and thousands of people being left homeless. This devastating earthquake left the city and United States in a financial crisis. Although the 1906 earthquake was one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the city of San Francisco was able to overcome these substantial physical, social and economic impacts it had.
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...