Here we are in the midst of Fire Prevention Week, the longest-running public safety observance on record.  This is the 85th year of the promotion.

Just for the heck of it, ask some firefighters if they know why Fire Prevention Week is always celebrated on or about the 2nd week of October.  If any of them say that it has something to do with the Great Chicago Fire, give them a “B” for their astuteness.  Save the “A” grade for anyone who can tell that October 9 is the anniversary date for the conflagration that has become one of the more famous fires in modern history.

Actually, it was on the evening of Sunday, October 8 that something happened inside of the barn behind the O’Leary home at 137 DeKoven Street.  A fire started up and quickly consumed the little building.  It was a night of unusually strong winds and the air had been very dry all day.  A watchman in a fire tower saw the glow but he mistakenly presumed it was the remnants of another fire that had occurred the previous day and failed to transmit the alarm.

When the blaze spread to neighboring homes and started moving through the city, the alarm finally went out.  But the super-heated winds were carrying firebrands ahead of the fire front and starting additional fires all through the city.  The mayor immediately telegraphed to neighboring towns for assistance, but it was to no avail.  The intensity and speed of the fire was overwhelming.  Before long, the fire had spread to the water works building and the destruction shut down the city’s water pumping plant.  At that point the fire department had to give up and all the people in the fire’s path had no recourse but to flee for their lives.

Most of them ran to the Chicago River or over to the shore of Lake Michigan where they sought refuge.  The entire city could do nothing but watch as a true hell-on-earth event roared through a city of closely-packed wooden structures, accelerated by cyclonic winds.  Finally, late Monday night the winds started to subside and a light rain began to fall and the fire ran out of energy.  Come Tuesday morning it was all over, but the burned area was so hot that they could not inspect it for days later.

When it was all over, the city had lost completely an area 4 miles long and 3/4 mile wide, including 17,500 buildings - a third of the city’s valuation.  While 125 bodies were recovered, the actual fatality count is estimated at 200 - 300.  Nearly 100,000 people of the total 300,000 population were left homeless.  In the fire zone, only 5 buildings survived.  As the flames were dying down, trainloads of lumber began arriving in the city for rebuilding.

There is no doubt as to where the fire started, as it was easy to trace back the spread pattern.  But exactly how it began will never be known for sure.  Popular folklore says that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern which ignited the straw.  But in 1893 Michael Ahern, a newspaper reporter who first wrote the story, admitted that he made up the story because he thought it would sell more papers.  There are other theories involving schemes like an illicit craps game taking place in the barn, but they are only theories.  Ironically, Mrs. O’Leary’s home, seen here in a picture taken shortly afterward, was spared from the fire by a shift in wind direction.

In 1956 the former O’Leary property was cleared and the Chicago Fire Department’s fire training academy was built on the site.  There is a stylized sculpture, Pillar of Fire, erected on the spot where the infamous barn stood.

Ok, students….let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll see you at the coffee table.

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