The Great Chicago Fire |
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By C. Daddy Stevens, Arkansas Mensa's Time Traveling Reporter
By 1:30 the fire had reached the Courthouse bell tower, from which the watchman barely escaped through the burning stairway by sliding down the banisters. When it became obvious that the Courthouse, itself, was doomed, the prisoners in the basement were released just before the great bell plummeted through the collapsing tower.
As thousands fled to the North Division, the fire pursued them. By 3 a.m., it had consumed the Rumsey homes on Huron Street, and a half-hour later the roof collapsed on the pumping station, effectively rendering any firefighting efforts useless.
The editors of the Chicago Tribune had been exhorting the City Council, throughout the summer, to raise the level of fire protection within the city to avoid just this sort of disaster. "The absence of rain for three weeks," reported the Tribune, "has left everything in so flammable a condition that a spark might set a fire that would sweep from end to end of the city." In the South Division, the offices of the Tribune had been reduced to rubble by 3:30 A.M.
By noon on Monday the North Division fires had reached North Avenue. They advanced the better part of a mile to Fullerton Avenue, then the northern limit of the city. Tuesday morning a saving rain began to fall, and the flames finally died out, leaving Chicago a smoking, steaming ruin.
Everything was gone. The luxurious grand homes of Chicago's wealthiest families had burnt to the ground just as the shanty towns in the O'Leary's neighborhood had. The museums, hotels and banks were gone. One of the few structures to survive the fire was the Water Tower which still stands today.
More than 18,000 buildings were destroyed in the two day fire. The Great Chicago Fire was a terrible disaster, but Chicago was not dead. Rebuilding began a few days later.
The stunning speed of the city's rebirth amazed the world. It soared from the ashes like Tokyo, Hamburg and Dresden would do less than a century later, and became the home of the first skyscraper in 1885.
The Great Chicago Fire was the beginning of a new metropolis, much greater than it could have ever become if the horrific fire had never happened at all.