Amazing FactsAmazing facts about American cities.

According to popular legend the Great Chicago Fire, which began late Sunday to the victims October 8, 1871 and flooded the hospital south of Chicago Illinois, with corpses and burning, began when a cow belonging to Mrs. Catherine O'Leary kicked over a kerosene lamp in his barn and lit a pile of hay. In those days, Chicago was a boomtown – one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. As a result most of the city, at least outside the downtown area, consisted of rickety wooden tenements and cottages that made perfect fire trap. Even in the downtown brick and stone structures were poorly constructed and in need of constant repair. A month before the Great Fire of Chicago Tribune published an editorial just a week passed without a ledge or stone faa § ade fall into the street and passing very close to the heads of pedestrians. The Tribune reported that the lack of rain this year (less 3 inches of rain had fallen throughout the summer 1871) had left the city in a state so flammable that any spark can ignite a fire that swept the city "from end to end."

Although historians regarding the legend of Mrs. O'Leary's cow as apocryphal, however, the Great Chicago Fire exploded near O'Leary's farm on the west side of Chicago. There had been a great war the day before that had left the Chicago Fire Department so tired and weak they could not respond to the alarm again quickly, by the time they arrived in the evening the fire was already out of control. A strong dry wind blows from the south Chicago hospital led to the fire in the heart of the downtown area. Within minutes, factories and shops along the river were in flames. The Wind on fire missiles wooden roofs of other structures, from the fires that burned from top to bottom. The sky was so full ash and sparks that observers referred to him as "Red Rain". In little more than an hour around the west side of Chicago, was reduced to ashes, and fire had jumped on the Chicago River and moved toward the center of town.

The new Omnibus Parmalee and Co. under construction at the corner of the streets Franklin and Jackson was engulfed by flames. The South Side Works Gas exploded and created a new larger facility for the fire. The oil and grease-covered river of fire soon captured, and the water flowed with flames. The fire that swept the river banks and the business district in LaSalle St. hundred buildings in Franklin, market, and Wells streets were burning at once, and one by one collapsed. The "trial by fire, a building that houses the Chicago Tribune became a smoking ruin, like the big hotels like the Tremont, Sherman, and Palmer House. Marshall Field's, department stores, was reduced to smoldering embers, like hundreds of other buildings.

Early Monday morning the fire reached the county courthouse, which opened quickly out of control and was ordered to evacuate before which collapsed at 2 am. State Bridge St. caught fire and the fire spread to the north side of the river in which devoured warehouses, stables, and breweries. The upscale residential neighborhood, which contains the mansions of the wealthiest families and most important of Chicago, who were reduced to smoking ruins. At 3 am the Water Supply Pine Street had collapsed, and the only intact building was the Gothic Water Tower, Stone, who survived the destruction. It is said that the tower is still haunted by the ghost of a firefighter who continued pumping water until he died. Meanwhile, bartenders trying desperately to save their businesses by fire, rolling out in the street whiskey barrels. Soon a crowd of drunken people began stumbling through the streets looting stores until the fire forced them to abandon their booty and flee. Teamsters charged huge sums for citizens anxious to take their belongings and flee from the mafia as a result the fire created chaos in the streets. South Chicago hospital was a scene of confusion, with burn victims lying between the bodies in the halls of the facility.