The Great Fire of Chicago - Essay Example

Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Great Chicago Fire of 1871 Chicago has a very rich history and has become a very vibrant and atopnotch city. It is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in the center of United States. According to the history, Illinois Indians in the year 1600’s named this place as “Chicaugou” – meaning strong and powerful. The first explorers of Chicago in 1673 were Louis Joliet and his father Jacques Marquette and the first settler in 1780 was Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, who considered the place an ideal location for trading. In the year 1833 Chicago became a town officially and after four years when its population raised to 4,170 people it was declared a city (AOSD Conference Committe, 2005). It emerged as a city of opportunities and soon in 1850’s nearly 100,000 immigrants came to the city and by the year 1870 it had a population of 300,000. When Chicago became a city, the houses built were mostly made out of wood, there were close knit wooden houses along the streets. The city only had one water station for the entire population that was constantly growing. Concerning the situation the city trustees expressed the need for a fire department, however the city’s fire insurance remained haphazard and nearly 900 houses were wooden. Another destructive cause of the Chicago fires was their inexperienced and untrained firefighters working under the volunteer fire departments. In the year 1855 Chicago got its first fire alarm system and it divided the city into six districts, the first official fire department in the city was established in 1858. Between this period of 1858 and 1871 the city experience about 3,700 fires out of which eight were major ones. By the year 1871, Chicago had experienced great expansion and constituted of nearly 60, 000 building out of which 90% were made out of wood moreover; it had wooden streets, side-walks, wooden industry in the centre and the lumber yards that churned the fire (Cowan, 2001). The weather conditions had been quite rough too as there was only two and a half inches of rain in the city in the period from July 3 to October 9, 1871. On an average the city experienced about two fires everyday which had been going on for the past year and there were 20 fires in the last week. The fire department was understaffed and it constantly complained about the inadequate equipments which included only 17 steamers and only four ladder and hooks (The Great Chicago Fire) . On 8th October 1871, between 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm, Chicago was struck by the most devastating fire of the 19th century in the history of America. It was the just one spark that found its way to destroy the entire city that was experiencing a drought from quite some months and once it started it couldn’t be stopped and turned into a one big conflagration (Sawislak, 1995). There is a little controversy on the starting of the fire on October 8, 1871 however many believe that the fire ignited in the barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary in the west region. However it soon caught pace and spread out to the entire Chicago city, travelling through the other barns, sheds, shanties and the buildings. This travelling of fire to entire city was aided by the extensive use of wood for buildings, the drought in the region before the fire and also the strong winds that came from the south west and further spread the flying embers to the other parts of the city. It is also noted that the reaction to the fire by the citizens was quite reluctant as nobody showed any concern. From the firefighting department as there were only 185 men, who were also engaged in the previous day’s fire, were exhausted from fighting fire the previous day. There were also very fatal errors made in breaking the fire alarm. The fire department didn’t receive any alarm until 9:40 pm. Although the fire department was alerted when the fire was small however the guard gave wrong direction to team which further wasted time and the fire kept growing. The fire soon caught all the neighboring shed, shanties and the strong winds took the fire to the north east side. Soon the fire engulfed the church and the debris and moved to the Chicago River. The fire spread continued because of the wooden buildings, the wood-planked side- walks and the roads of the city, the ships lining also taking the coal yards and the commercial lumber. All the attempts made to stop the fire turned out unsuccessful. Although the Mayor did seek help from the neighboring cities but it too was in vain since the fire has grown and was impossible to contain. As the fire destroyed the waterworks, cutting the water supply in the city the firefighters also gave up. On Tuesday morning finally the fire subsided, due to the rain and the diminishing winds, but the Great Fire had caused a lot of destruction of about three square miles of the city, it took the lives of nearly 300 citizens while 100,000 were homeless and there was a great loss of property of about $200 million. However the O’Leary house survived (Young, 2004). The weather reports also indicated that the cause of the fire had been the long droughts in Chicago in the year 1871 and it was because of these dry conditions that a small fire erupted and turned into an inferno and caused destruction to the entire city. The fires spread was aided by the citys overuse of wood for building, a drought prior to the fire, and strong winds from the southwest that carried flying embers toward the heart of the city. Soon after the Great fire, the reforms began in the fire standards of the city. As the fire was because of the drought and the wooden buildings thus the changes in the fire codes were made. The problem of undermanned firefighters being the first, the city inducted reserve firemen in order to fight any such situation in the future. Another important step taken was that now a fire inspector visits every place assigned in order to check if everything is up to date. Moreover in every commercial building fire extinguishers were installed and there were sprinklers on the ceilings. The streets were also equipped with firehydrons and other fire prevention tools were also installed all over the city. Although all these practices seem normal today but these were non-existent in the region in the 1800’s (Yackish). The building codes of Chicago also changed. Before the great fire everything in the city was overly using the woods but after the fire there was a great change and the new building were made out of the double course clay bricks. The streets were also reconfigured into a grid formation making it easier for the firefighters to reach the place. Also the dimensions for the exit from the apartments are defined so that no one is far away from the exit door in case of emergency. Also the tenements were reconstructed into three-storied flats so that they are not at such a height where the ladder cannot reach. It was also made mandatory in the apartments to keep fire escapes so that where the stairwells are involved there is an alternate outlet. The buildings were then made out of Indiana limestone. There were also changes made in the water supply as the underground pipes became the waterlines having a large diameter to ensure significant pressure of the water making it easier for the fire trucks not to carry their own or to fill from the lake or the river. Fire hoses were installed in the buildings (Arnold, 2005). As a result of the Great Fire, a lot of amendments were made to building codes of many cities of United States including Chicago. In the mid of 1970s Chicago amended its building code in specific relation to the high-rise buildings. Ever since the city has made efforts to amend the regulations and include fire safety improvements and automatic sprinklers to the buildings in view of the fires in high-rise buildings. The figures show that the casualties due to fire in Chicago over a period of 57 years from 1946-2003 have been unprecedented, whereby 14 fatalities were recorded in office buildings, 77 in hotel occupancies and 57 in residential buildings. These figures indicated that the people in high-rise buildings are at a greater risk. In view of the greater number of causalities in hotel occupancy in 1980s the city made efforts to ensure hotel fire safety and for this complete fire detection systems were installed in hotels. Potter Palmer rebuilt the hotel and declared it to be “the world’s first fireproof building”. Also in the year 1965, the O’Leary property that survived the great fire was reconstructed and became the Chicago Fire Academy serving to be the training facility for the Chicago firefighters. Chicago has the most number of high-rise buildings in the US after the exception of New York, therefore in order to ensure complete fire safety in the region the ordinances formed required exterior building repairs and façade inspection, evacuation plans and emergency generators. In contrast the City’s administration prepared a comprehensive mandate to ensure safety in buildings the items included: The evacuation plans of the high rise building must be submitted to the city’s 911 center The stairway doors shouldn’t be locked in order to make re-entry, with an exception of automatic and manual unlocking systems Installation of voice communication systems in high-rise buildings for notification purposes to the fire department Installation of automatic sprinklers Life Safety Evaluations (LSE) in order to ensure safety measures in other buildings Modification of the installation criteria and materials to have more cost effective installations in order to encourage everyone to improve safety measures. The great Chicago Fire, although devastating but taught some very valuable lessons to America. It was in view of this fire that the structural adjustments were made and an emphasis was given to adopt new methods for fire safety. It also led to some major political and social changes in the city as well, brought all the citizens together and encouraged them to challenge what is not acceptable. The Great Fire of Chicago and the reforms after also led to great changes in the other parts of America and created awareness on fire safety measures. Works Cited AOSD Conference Committe. (2005). Chicago: A Brief History. Retrieved from aosd.net: http://aosd.net/2005/local/history.php Arnold, J. (2005). Large Building Fires and Subsequent Code Changes. Las Vegas: Department of Development Services . Cowan, D. (2001). Great Chicago fires: historic blazes that shaped a city. Chicago: Lake Caremont Press. Sawislak, K. (1995). Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871-1874. The University of Chicago Press. The Great Chicago Fire. (n.d.). Retrieved from United States History: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1854.html Yackish, J. (n.d.). Chicago Fire 1871. Retrieved from https://www.msu.edu/user/yackishj/atl150.htm Young, K. (2004). The Newspaper Coverage of the Great Chicago Fire . Brookwood Junior High School, Glenwood . Read More