THE CHICAGO FIRE of 1871         The summer of 1871 had been an unusually dry one in Chicago. Between July and October, only 5 inches of rain fell. In addition to twenty-seven fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke out in a planning mill on the West Side and destroyed almost every building in a four block area before it was brought under control Sunday morning. They lost a hose and other …showed first 75 words of 541 total…

…showed last 75 words of 541 total…firemen went home. Finally around 11P.M. the wind died down and showers began falling. The fire was over, even though many piles of wood remained smoldering.         90,000 people were left homeless and 300 people died. 2124 acres were destroyed in the raging inferno, a total of $200,000,000 in property loss. After a huge fire like this you would expect for it to take a long time to rebuild, but with in a month, 4,000 new buildings were put up.