THE REASON CHICAGO BURNED
The flames easily purged through the city that was reduced to a matchbox by a combination of wooden building materials, drought, and extreme weather.
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[LEFT] The three months leading up to the fire (July 4-Oct 8), only 3.70 inches of rain had fallen, half as much as the normal rainfall and the driest in Chicago history to date. [RIGHT] A strong southwest wind carried the fire northeast from the origin.
[LEFT] “Shows the course of the cyclonic storm that prevailed on the day of the Chicago and Peshtigo fires" [Wisconsin Historical Society original caption] [RIGHT] The period leading up to the fire was very dry (low afternoon humidity) and unnaturally warm.
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[BELOW] As shown by these snippets of weather maps for Oct. 8 [CLICK TO VIEW DOCUMENT], an unnaturally high southwest wind prevailed throughout the day with high temperatures during the evening and night.
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*The numbers represent temperature (F), atomspheric pressure (inHg), wind velocity (mph) respectively; arrow = wind direction
(Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Q3wwRAGiw)
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“The destruction of the city can be said to have been brought about by fire spilled progressively on it by these fire devils which started new fires far in advance of those from which they arose; these, assisted by showers of sparks and masses of super-heated air, formed new centers of destruction, from which fire literally flowed in all directions particularly to the north and northeast, which ceased only when there was nothing more to burn." - H.A. Musham, historian |
COW KICKS OVER A LANTERN
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Although the resulting inquiry by the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners set the cause of the fire as “indeterminate," 130 years after the fire took place, Mrs. O'Leary continued to be scorned by the city she allegedly burned to ground. In 2001, a Chicago newspaper claimed that “even if it were an absurd rumor, forty miles wide of the truth, it would be useless to attempt to alter the 'verdict of history,'" threatening that “she [Mrs. O'Leary] is in for it, and no mistake" [Chicago Evening Journal, 2001].