Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes That Shaped a City

by David Cowan

Book Overview

"the hand of God and the lack of fire escapes" In 1916, poet Carl Sandburg wrote about a young girl who jumps to her death in a Chicago factory fire, attributing her tragic end to "the hand of God and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893121070
• ISBN13: 9781893121072
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Lake Claremont Press
• Length: 169 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 9.9" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

TWO CENTURIES OF FIRE

As one of the nation's largest cities, one would expect many fires, but Chicago has suffered more than it's share. Just about every type of building in the windy city has burned at one time or other. These include theaters, hotels, schools and warehouses, not to mention the city itself, which lost some 18000 buildings in the well known 1871 conflagration. All of these and more are included here. And the book is relatively short, so it can be read at a single reading, or one can select chapters of interest. I was also pleased to discover so much new detail here. I had thought it likely that much here would be no more than a retelling of familiar fire stories, but that was not so. I have studied these fires, and still learned a lot. For instance; Lloyds of London cancelled all policies in Chicago one year before the great fire because of its condition. The Iriquois Theater was built with historic building fires in mind, but the owners cut corners to open early. The mayor of an Illinois town who died in the La Salle hotel blaze of 1946 was going to stay elsewhere, but was sent to the La Salle by mistake. These are but three fascinating facts from this work on 'Great Chicago Fires'.

Ironic and excellent book

David Cowan's book on Chicago fires now has an infamous side that makes the book all-the-more of an sad and interesting read. There are a few generations of Chicagoans who remember these events: terrible events that wail through the years. The history of Chicago blazes is very well done; dig into it.

A Picture-Filled Overview of This Tragic Subject

This book discusses such conflagrations as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Iroquois Theater Fire, Columbian Exposition Fire, Chicago Stockyards Fire, etc. The book is full of pictures, some of which have apparently not been published elsewhere. The account of the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire is particularly engrossing. We learn about a troubled boy who probably set the fire. The fire burned for some time, unnoticed. Then the stairwell caught fire, sending smoke into the second-floor hallway, and trapping the children and teachers. Soon the hallway flashed over. So did the cockloft above the classrooms. Yet the firefighters heroically managed to pull at least 150 children, out of the windows, and out of the jaws of certain death. There are several photos of the recovery of the bodies after the fire. Discussion of the McCormick Place Fire of 1967 includes a telling picture of the failed roof truss (p. 106). This served to remind us that steel in general, and long, unsupported steel trusses in particular, do poorly in large fires. (This later was a major factor in the collapse of the WTC towers on 911). This book is not limited to spectacular, single fires. There is also discussion of several non-famous individual fires, as well as the many fires that were ignited during the 1960's race riots, especially following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.