PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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On the night of Oct. 8, 1871, a fire erupted in the O’Leary family barn at 137 DeKoven Street in Chicago.

The most famous and enduring explanation is that a cow kicked over a lamp while being milked by Mrs. O’Leary, but this story was a baseless rumor spread by local papers. It caught on with the public partly due to anti-Irish sentiment and the desire for a clear scapegoat for the destruction that followed.

Whether the fire was sparked by chance, accident or intent, it soon engulfed the barn and spread, aided by drought conditions and strong winds from the southwest. 

The undamaged O'Leary cottage, near the origin point of the fire.

The city’s 185 firefighters, already exhausted from fighting smaller fires, were quickly outmatched as superheated winds sent burning debris flying across the Chicago River, igniting wooden buildings, plank sidewalks and even the greasy surface of the river itself.

City officials evacuated prisoners from the basement jail of the courthouse, just before its bell tower caught fire and sent its great bell crashing through the building. At 3:30 a.m., the Pumping Station on Chicago Avenue collapsed, crippling the fire department’s ability to combat the blaze.

The conflagration raged out of control as the panicked and awestruck population fled the city. By the time a rain began to fall on Tuesday morning, more than 2,000 acres of the city had burned, leveling 17,500 buildings and causing $222 million in damage. A third of the city’s 300,000 residents were left homeless, and as many as 300 dead.

The ruins of the Chicago Historical Society building.

A man stands on the remains of the Van Buren Street Bridge.

A man pours cold water on a still-hot safe after the fire.

A man stands amid the ruins of the Union Depot.

The ruins of the Grand Pacific Hotel and the Honore block, seen from the corner of Dearborn and Monroe Streets.

The ruins of Trinity Church.

Exterior walls remain standing on "Drake's Block" at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Washington Street.

Reconstruction begins a few weeks after the fire.

Men stand amid the rubble at LaSalle Street and Washington Street.

The first destroyed business to reopen in the aftermath of the fire.