Speaker 1: As we watch firefighters continue to try to deal with
Speaker 1: the fires in La County, we can see a really
Speaker 1: amazing similarity to what happened in the Great Chicago Fire
Speaker 1: of the eighteen seventy one. I'm Patty Steele when the
Speaker 1: fire was master. Next on the backstory, We're back with
Speaker 1: the backstory. The Great Chicago Fire is a riveting story.
Speaker 1: It started in the barn on the O'Leary family's property
Speaker 1: around nine pm on a hot Sunday night in early
Speaker 1: October eighteen seventy one. Just like the fire in La
Speaker 1: this one came after a long drought and grew due
Speaker 1: to unusually windy conditions in a city known as the
Speaker 1: Windy City. What started it, well, it could have been
Speaker 1: a cow kicking over a lantern as some teen boys
Speaker 1: played in the O'Leary barn. Or it could have started
Speaker 1: spontaneously after Patrick O'Leary stacked undried hay in the hayloft
Speaker 1: and there was a chemical reaction, Or maybe somebody tossed
Speaker 1: a cigarette or a pipe. But the flames took off
Speaker 1: and neighbors ran to help, leaving their own houses and
Speaker 1: barns vulnerable. Over the next thirty hours that fire would
Speaker 1: grow and grow, roaring across three square miles in the
Speaker 1: heart of Chicago. Three hundred people were killed and seventeen
Speaker 1: four hundred fifty buildings were destroyed. It caused more property
Speaker 1: damage than any fire before it in America. In the
Speaker 1: following years, witnesses shared their stories. One young guy said,
Speaker 1: volumes of flames carried across to other streets. There were
Speaker 1: showers of sparks, red and glowing. They fell like golden snow,
Speaker 1: and the air was filled with them as far as
Speaker 1: the eye could see, not only sparks, but burning pieces
Speaker 1: of wood. The wind was blowing fierce, spreading the flames.
Speaker 1: It was a hellish sight. Streets, houses, trees, everything in
Speaker 1: one huge furnace. Close your eyes and try to imagine
Speaker 1: what that looked like. Some firemen said it could have
Speaker 1: been stopped, but wasn't due to human error and bad luck.
Speaker 1: Said one. We sprayed water for five minutes and then
Speaker 1: the engine gave out. One of the springs broke in
Speaker 1: the pumps. Running it might destroy it, but I said,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a big fire smash her.
Speaker 1: We have to run her. Another said, if the Chicago
Speaker 1: Brigade had done her duty, the flames would have been
Speaker 1: checked fast, but the engine had no steam left because
Speaker 1: she'd been used the night before in another fire. The
Speaker 1: men were exhausted when they got back and went straight
Speaker 1: to the bunk room without getting the engine ready for
Speaker 1: the next fire. The captain went home. The fire department
Speaker 1: was indeed caught napping. Everything was as it should not be.
Speaker 1: Robert Williams, Chicago's fire marshal, added the supply of hose
Speaker 1: was inefficient and the men were exhausted. After Saturday night's burning,
Speaker 1: everything went wrong, plus there was a communications mess. A
Speaker 1: watchman at the city's courthouse saw the flames but gave
Speaker 1: the alarm system's operator incorrect information about the location. Firefighters
Speaker 1: later said they got the incorrect alarm around nine thirty pm,
Speaker 1: and it delayed their response. One claimed that with two
Speaker 1: more engines on sit on time, they could have stopped
Speaker 1: the fire, but they got there too late. By the
Speaker 1: time they did arrive, the fire was out of control,
Speaker 1: jumping across streets. At that point, the horses pulling the
Speaker 1: fire engines couldn't take the heat. The firemen said their
Speaker 1: clothes were smoking as they tried to work, and much
Speaker 1: like in La part of the problem was how quickly
Speaker 1: the city had grown, with houses, barns and businesses stacked
Speaker 1: one right next to the other. As the embers flew
Speaker 1: through the air, they dropped down and got trapped between
Speaker 1: the buildings, starting more blazes. There were no fire brakes.
Speaker 1: It was like dominoes. One man said he watched the
Speaker 1: flames for a while and when he realized it was
Speaker 1: out of control, had to run to the nearest bridge
Speaker 1: to escape. He said, the air was like a blast furnace.
Speaker 1: I was pushed and trampled on by others trying to
Speaker 1: get away. They were screaming and cursing. People had wagons
Speaker 1: and carts loaded with belongings that were trying to save,
Speaker 1: but then they were abandoning even their small wagons just
Speaker 1: to save their lives. Sounds a lot like folks in
Speaker 1: La leaving their automobiles in the middle of the street
Speaker 1: to escape, And as in La, some folks managed to
Speaker 1: get out of the fire zone and stayed with friends
Speaker 1: or family, but most not so lucky. Witnesses, including a cop,
Speaker 1: said as the fire spread all the old wooden buildings
Speaker 1: were ablaze. There were women and children in their nightclothes
Speaker 1: and men with bundles fleeing the flames, complete confusion. The
Speaker 1: streets were thronged with these human beings, hollering and running
Speaker 1: in every direction. One telegraph operator said he saw some
Speaker 1: men ramming open whiskey barrels that were lying in the street.
Speaker 1: He said, as soon as the liquor was gut out,
Speaker 1: they'd throw themselves flat into the street to gulp the
Speaker 1: whisky as it poured over them, and no one interfered
Speaker 1: with their amusement. Worse yet, the weather office said that
Speaker 1: as the intense heat from the fire grew, it actually
Speaker 1: increased the speed of the wind, pushing the fire forward
Speaker 1: through the city, blowing people fifty feet through the air.
Speaker 1: They said the wind was blowing with the force of
Speaker 1: a hurricane, lifting up entire wooden buildings while they were ablaze. Also,
Speaker 1: as in the recent La fires, some folks blamed arsonists
Speaker 1: for the growth of the fire, and city officials hired
Speaker 1: special officers, although historians later said the rumors were probably false.
Speaker 1: Who knows even so, One angry residence said citizens were
Speaker 1: patrolling and orders were given to shoot down every man
Speaker 1: found setting fire. I heard shot after shot and felt
Speaker 1: glad when I heard them, and the fire raged on.
Speaker 1: A politician watching from a hotel across the river said,
Speaker 1: I saw people huddle together, trying to hold on to
Speaker 1: their things, helpless and astounded. The air was filled with
Speaker 1: falling cinders, and it looked like a snowstorm lit by
Speaker 1: colored fire. By three am, the city water pumping station
Speaker 1: had burned and water stopped flowing into the pipes. Hydrants
Speaker 1: across Chicago began to run dry again, just like La,
Speaker 1: said the fire captain. At that moment, the fire was master.
Speaker 1: It was there that it seemed to be superhuman and
Speaker 1: bent on its work of destruction. A wave of wind
Speaker 1: met the sea of fire, and the sea of fire
Speaker 1: rolled over our buildings. A nineteen year old salesman was
Speaker 1: living downtown with family, sharing a bed with two rumors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: come and practice back then, he said, My bedfellows were
Speaker 1: shaking me. The whole city is on fire. Savior things.
Speaker 1: I jumped out of bed. Everyone was trying to save
Speaker 1: his men as much as possible. I gathered what I
Speaker 1: could and left with the family. People in the streets
Speaker 1: were carrying all kinds of crazy things. A woman was
Speaker 1: carrying a pot of soup which was spilling all over
Speaker 1: her dress. They were saving worthless things and leaving behind
Speaker 1: good things. And there were looters forcing their way into
Speaker 1: stores and throwing out merchandise into the street for others
Speaker 1: to gather up. As people fled onlookers said valuable oil, paintings, books, pets,
Speaker 1: musical instruments, toys, mirrors, and bedding were just trampled on.
Speaker 1: A young newlywed said she'd just gotten her house together
Speaker 1: when the fire broke out. She said, I tried to
Speaker 1: save my things, then finally shut the doors on my treasures.
Speaker 1: I nearly broke down and thought I could not leave them,
Speaker 1: but I choked back my grief and I left. And
Speaker 1: some people actually dug holes in the ground to try
Speaker 1: to save their household items by burying them. It did
Speaker 1: no good. When people did get away with items they
Speaker 1: thought mattered. A lot of them went to a massive
Speaker 1: park along Lake Michigan. For a mile along the lake,
Speaker 1: people had dropped their treasures in the grass, but his
Speaker 1: embers rained down. They finally left it all behind to
Speaker 1: jump in the water to keep from being burned, said
Speaker 1: one survivor. Everybody carried what goods they could save to
Speaker 1: the lake shore park. There were ladies in silk, velvet
Speaker 1: and diamonds and peasants with nothing, and then a cloud
Speaker 1: of flames and smoke covered them, clothes catching fire. One
Speaker 1: man ripped his wife's burning skirt off of her. We
Speaker 1: all try to imagine what we would attempt to bring
Speaker 1: with us if we were forced to evacuate due to
Speaker 1: a fire or other catastrophe. A lot like the burning
Speaker 1: of the White House in eighteen fourteen, when First Lady
Speaker 1: Dolly Madison opted to save certain things, most famously a
Speaker 1: portrait of George Washington, which still hangs once again in
Speaker 1: the White House. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you leave it all behind just to escape with
Speaker 1: your life and the lives of the peaple you love?
Speaker 1: Talk about an existential moment. A lot of folks thought
Speaker 1: that this was Judgment Day. A fire marshal told the press.
Speaker 1: Our men had worked till their eyes were puffed out
Speaker 1: from heat and cinders, their voices were gone, and their
Speaker 1: clothing burned off of them. They had to feel their
Speaker 1: way from place to place. They stumbled and fell from exhaustion,
Speaker 1: and even then crawled to the front and fought on.
Speaker 1: How did they begin to make progress? While they started
Speaker 1: exploding buildings with gunpowder to create a fire break and
Speaker 1: stop the fire's advance in several directions. A newspaper editor said,
Speaker 1: we heard the detonations and it gave us all heart.
Speaker 1: Imagine people feeling encouraged because somebody was blowing up houses
Speaker 1: in the midst of the city. And then early Tuesday
Speaker 1: morning rain began to fall and the fire was halted.
Speaker 1: The rain also threatened the health of thousands of people
Speaker 1: with nowhere to go, but they weren't going to burn,
Speaker 1: as the crowds real they had survived, they say, people
Speaker 1: covered with sand and soot encouraged each other, and everyone
Speaker 1: said Chicago will be rebuilt immediately. At most three hundred
Speaker 1: people died, and ironically, a much lesser known fire happened
Speaker 1: the exact same day, killing eleven hundred people. It was
Speaker 1: a forest fire in a lumbertown near Peshtigo, Wisconsin, but
Speaker 1: the Chicago fire is what we remember. It still ranks
Speaker 1: fifth on the list of US fires causing the most
Speaker 1: property damage, ahead of it at number one the two
Speaker 1: thousand and one attack on the World Trade Center at two.
Speaker 1: The fire caused by the nineteen oh six San Francisco
Speaker 1: earthquake and at three and four the California forest fires
Speaker 1: of twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen, but it's very likely
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five LA fires we've just watched will
Speaker 1: top the list. Hope you like the Backstory with Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: back Story with Patty Steele. The pieces of history you
Speaker 1: didn't know you needed to know