Chicago Fire Research Paper

Words: 428
Pages: 2

It’s been 145 remarkable years since the Great Chicago Fire. Chicago back then had been made of complete wood because of the rapid growth speed. The city was vulnerable on that warm, dry, summer day. Chicago had had a drought for a couple of months. No one suspected a thing that bad would happen to them, in the peaceful city. Theories say that Mrs. O’Leary and her cow had been the cause of the disaster. But, then again, it’s just a theory.
Before the Great Chicago Fire begun, no one took notice of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, two Irish immigrants who lived with their five children. Patrick, Mrs. O’Leary’s husband, was a laborer and Catherine, (Mrs. O’Leary), sold milk from door to door, keeping her five cows in the barn. Some say that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow(s) knocked over a lantern in the barn but it’s just a very popular theory. The big river in Chicago was claimed to be very polluted and oily which was very contributive to the great fire. Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary’s house was on the southwest side of town at 137 DeKoven Street.
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The suspected time of the fire start was at 9:00pm. That night Mrs. O’Leary claimed to be sleeping on the night of Sunday, October 8, when flames first sparked in the barn. On Sunday evening , October 8, 1871, just after nine o’clock, a fire broke out behind Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary’s house inside their barn. Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn and started the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a meteor might have been responsible for the event. The fire left about a four mile stretch across the city and that was about a mile wide. As far as we know of, about 300 people died and 100,000 people were