1871年芝加哥大火:总结|学校工作助手

1871年夏天在芝加哥一直是一个异常干燥的。7月至10月之间，只有5英寸的雨水下降。此外10月的第一个星期，也就是10月7日，周六晚上，西区的一个规划工厂发生了一场大火，大火几乎摧毁了四个街区内的所有建筑，直到周日上午火势才得到控制。他们丢失了一根水管和其他消防设备，包括17辆蒸汽消防车中的一辆和一辆水龙车。芝加哥185名消防队员中有近一半的人在灭火，许多人全天值班，所以当1871年芝加哥大火来袭时，他们已经精疲力尽了。有些人认为这场大火是由奥利里太太的奶牛踢翻了一盏灯笼引起的。其他人有不同的理论，但有一件事是肯定的，1871年10月8日星期日晚上，欧莱利太太的谷仓起火。当丹尼尔·沙利文(Daniel Sullivan)看到奥利里太太的谷仓里有火焰时，他坐在木质人行道上。他设法救了一只半成年的小牛。现在，邻居们都醒了，包括熟睡的奥利里一家。“美国”号水龙车是第一个到达现场的。不久，“小巨人”引擎公司也加入了他们的行列。 A neighbor ran to a drug store to turn on an alarm but the alarm failed to work. The court house watchman had given wrong directions but later tried to correct his mistake, but the alarm operator was eating dinner so she refused to correct the mistake. The fire engines went about 1 mile south of where the fire was. By the time the problem was resolved, a number of hose carts and fire engines were fighting to keep this fire under control, but the wind had spread bits of burning debris. Several homes, one block north, had caught on fire. The flames were so intense that one fireman’s hat was warped and his clothing was smoking.

读：

Kim Todd的《修补伊甸园:总结与分析》(Tinkering with Eden: Summary & Analysis)

大火迅速蔓延整个芝加哥。疯狂的房主和商人，他们的房子可能在火灾的路径上，把所有的东西都堆了起来他们的财产被扔到街上。西侧和南侧都笼罩在一层烟雾中。正如水龙二号电梯的托马斯·伯恩所说:“你看不到任何东西，除了火....。没有云，没有星，只有火。”周一，北侧开始起火。当人们东逃到湖边时，一些奇怪的东西被保存了下来，例如:一只公鸡、壁炉罩、一副扑克牌、一个烟囱、一个空盒子、一个鸡毛掸子和一个木制的印第安人。就在法庭被烧毁前不久，100名囚犯被释放。大多数囚犯开始抢劫。当自来水厂发生火灾时，许多消防队员都回家了。最后晚上11点左右。风停了，开始下起阵雨。 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 within a month, 4,000 new buildings were put up