In the 1870s, there were 355,000 residents in Chicago, USA. The Chicago River divides the city into 3 districts – West, South, and North. Extremely dry items were laying in the streets. In the first week of October alone, there were 30 fire accidents in the city already (Charles River Editors, 2014). At 8:30 p.m. on October 8th, housewife Mrs. O’Leary took a lantern to the barn to care for a sick cow. She placed the light on the floor of the barn. The irritated cows knocked the lantern on to the ground. The fuel immediately hit the floor and the hay. The fire immediately rose to the top of the barn. Mrs. O’Leary yelled for help. When the neighbors arrived, the entire barn was surrounded by fire, and the burned animals ran wildly. The kerosene spilled on the grass and the barn immediately burned. The sty, the chicken house, and the barn were all wooden and they were all linked together. The fire rapidly grew in these places. The residents lived in paint-coated cardboard huts. When a fire broke out, it affected the surrounding residential buildings almost immediately. At this time, the northwest wind blew again, and the fire burned and spread.

Previously, the city of Chicago had set up new alarms in some important locations. Normally, the fire alarms are locked and the keys are held by nearby people. After the fire broke out, residents immediately unlocked the alarm, but because the alarm was not tested after installation, there was a serious failure and the fire headquarters could not receive the alarm in time (Bennie, 2008). Although a nearby fire brigade heard that the news arrived immediately, manpower was very limited. After the fire broke out, Mrs. O’Leary’s neighbor immediately sent a fire alarm to the fire brigade. In the attic at the top of the building of the Municipal Law Building, the watchman on duty noticed the fire. When he told the telephone officer William Brown about the fire, he mistook Area 342 with Area 319. When this mistake was discovered, the watchman immediately notified Brown and asked him to resend a fire signal to the fire department in Area 319. Area 319 had two of the city’s most powerful fire engines, and it is only a few blocks away from the fire site. If the fire engines were dispatched in time, it would be much easier to extinguish the fire. However, Brown, on the pretext of causing confusion between the fire brigades, refused to resend a fire signal to the fire brigade in Area 319. Brown should be held responsible for this fire that almost destroyed the entire Chicago.

At about 10 o’clock in the evening, two fire engines arrived at Mrs. O’Leary’s block. At this time, the whole western area of Chicago was burning. After a series of struggles, the firefighters discovered that the fire was not weakened, but burned even more fiercely. Not only the general houses were disappearing, but the hotels and restaurants were also caught in the fire. Firefighters organized many onlookers to fight the fire. At the beginning, these people did a good job, but with time, they couldn’t help getting tired. Together with the panic caused by the burning of the fire, these people were reduced to nothing. With the explosion of a building, these people were dispersed. Two hours after the fire, the wind speed increased to 100 kilometers per hour, which caused the fire to spread faster (Chapin, 2018). In three hours, the fire burned down seven blocks. Under the strong wind, the fire jumped over the open air, crossed the Chicago River, and burned southward. In the Southern District, countless burning wooden blocks fell on many of the roofs. These houses burned immediately. A warehouse and a paint shop nearby were immediately ignited, forming a huge wall of fire and puffing toward the northeast. Suddenly, houses about four or five blocks to the north and east of the fire started to burn as well. People could do nothing while they watched their homes burning in flames.

Before long, the fire approached the densest central area of ​​the population. Looking afar, the tall Pacific Hotel building was like a huge torch. Immediately afterwards, the Commercial Building and the Chicago Chamber of Commerce Building also ignited a raging fire. Under the burning building, people ran wildly and crowded. Immediately afterwards, the Opera House and the National Bank also burned. Along with this, the Post Office building was also burned into a huge torch. Many residents and shop owners refused to leave their houses and stores. As a result, these people died in the fire. The fire spread to the center of the South District. Chicago’s government agencies, theaters, financial institutions, newspapers, department stores were all concentrated here. When the public security building caught fire, hundreds of criminals in the basement of the building riled up. The guard captain made an immediate decision and ordered his men to let go of all the prisoners except murderers. There drunkards were everywhere. They broke open the wine storage warehouse and broke the wine jars (Chapin, 2018). This undoubtedly contributed to the spread of the fire. Old Chicago became a living hell that night.

After 40 minutes, the water supply system in the entire city was destroyed and the water supply stopped. At this time, many people jumped into the huge pool of water plants to protect themselves. When the fire burned into the water plant, the people who stayed in the water panic and some people began to jump out of the pool and rushed to the distant Illinois River. The fires pressed harder and harder, but many firefighters had to give up fighting it because they had no water available. In order to prevent the spread of the fire, the firefighters blew up two huge buildings, but it did not work. Instead, the shattered firewood helped fuel the fire. On the next day, the fire continued to burn and to devour the buildings, factories, houses, and stores. From Harrison Street to Michigan Street, a full 30 hours, the fire burned two-thirds of the city of old Chicago to the ground.
The Causes
Historians believe that it was no coincidence that the catastrophe in Chicago was happening. Even without the Mrs. O’Leary’s barn involved in the incident, the Chicago fire was still inevitable, because the city of Chicago itself had already become a serious fire hazard by the 1870s (Charles River Editors, 2014). The causes of the Great Chicago Fire, and other frequent fires in U.S., European cities are as follows. Firstly, the abundant forest resources in North America provided the raw materials for urban construction. The city’s residential areas, factory buildings, public facilities, and even roads were using extensive amounts of wood. This became a major fire hazard in the city. There were more than 60,000 wooden buildings in Chicago at the time, which formed an unorganized metropolis. The streets connecting the buildings were surrounded by wooden fences. The houses that extend several miles from the downtown area were wooden structures. The perimeter of the house was full of firewood for winter use and the granaries were also surrounded by wooden fences. Dry autumn leaves were all over the place (Bennie, 2008). Wood factories also provided extremely flammable materials for the fire. At that time, the weather was extremely dry, and after several consecutive days of no rainfall, there were adequate conditions to create a fire. The only thing needed was one spark.

Secondly, the rapid development of U.S. cities and the rapid accumulation and increase in population, housing, economic activities, and resources increased the risks of fire. Chicago is located in the southern end of Michigan in the United States and is extremely advantageous geographically. It is at the midpoint of the national geographic location, with the more developed northeastern regions to the east, and the resource-rich regions to the west of the Mississippi River (Gale, 2015). It is the hub for the regional economic circulation in the US. It is also the best location to be reached by the water transport facilities on the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes, and on the railroads and freeway transportation network with the south, west and north exposures. In the largest grain planting and animal husbandry areas in the United States, the Great Lakes region has abundant resources such as coal, iron mining, and other metal resources, which have great potential for the development of manufacturing industries. The rapid development of Chicago is remarkable, and the city Increase in growth and population will inevitably increase the demand for urban infrastructure. Apparently, the city design and fire-fighting management did not catch up with it rate of expansion.

Thirdly, the inventions of coal oil refining methods and kerosene lamps made kerosene lamps affordable to millions of households in America. Meanwhile, the number of fire hazards increased beyond control. Each household with kerosene lamps became a source of fire hazard, and it was simply impossible to eliminate these hazards under the circumstances back then. The U.S. fire-fighting facilities, infrastructure, and urban management were underdeveloped. They were not adjusted in time according to the urbanization fire hazard situation. Fundamentally, the American cities of the time were only the accumulation of rural areas. The concept of urban construction was completely missing, which was inconsistent with the development of Chicago. The War of Independence did not bring about independence in architectural culture. The architectural model and style in Chicago were mostly imitating European countries. In the face of such a severe fire situation, director of firefighting work in the city at that time, suggested to the Chicago City Council to increase the number of fire-fighting equipment and other fire-fighting facilities (Charles River Editors, 2014). Unfortunately, the City Council rejected his proposal. At this time, the Chicago Fire Department had a total of 185 firefighters and 17 horse-drawn and fire-fighting wagons at the fire stations in the city with a population of 350,000 and 36 square miles respectively. Inadequate facilities, manpower, equipment, and poor management contributed to the severity of the fire.
The Effects
At about 3 am on October 10th, 1871, the wind blew and light rain began. The 30-hour fire finally stopped. In this fire, hundreds of people were killed, 17,500 houses were burned, around 100,000 people were made homeless, and material losses amounted to 192 million U.S. dollars (Gale, 2015). This is the worst fire in the world in the 19th century. Throughout the 19th century to the early 20th century, urban construction and management in the United States experienced a gradual improvement process. By the end of the 19th century, the total industrial and agricultural output value of the United States had leapt to the top in the world. The total value of industrial production surpassed that of agriculture for the first time. The urban population surpassed that of rural areas and the social structure has undergone an overall transformation. In the more than 100 years since the beginning of the 19th century, urbanization in the United States has undergone several transformations. Among them, the Great Chicago Fire triggered major transformations in urban construction and management in the United States.

The first major transformation was mainly reflected in urban construction. During this period of time, the devastating city fires in the United States frequently occurred. Each incident frequently affected several hundred houses, and the losses generally exceeded tens of millions of US dollars, causing massive casualties. In the years after the Great Chicago Fire, the federal government established a disaster assistance system through policies such as transfer payments and tax exemptions. It became a modern federal, state, and local government adjustment, and established an emergency management system (Skarbek, 2014). Before the 19th century, Chicago was only a small town in the Midwestern United States. In 1837, there were only 4,000 people. Due to the development of the west of the United States, the township, which is located in the eastern and western traffic arteries, developed rapidly after the Civil War. By 1890, the population had increased to 1 million.

The prosperity of the economy and the rapid expansion of the population have stimulated the development of the construction industry. The fire that occurred in the city center further exacerbated the demand for new housing. To build a large number of houses in a short period of time, the architects in Chicago chose such a structure: high-rise, iron or steel frames, box-type structures. The box frame made of iron is enough to bear the weight, the outer wall has no load-bearing function, and the iron frame is easy to set up, and the outside is covered with stone or concrete (Schons, 2011). High-rise buildings are easy to accommodate more people. The motivation point of these practices was to make up for the loss of fire as quick as possible, but it was precisely in line with the needs of the rapid economic development of the building. Gradually, the fire led to major transformations for Chicago and led to the revolution in metropolis design and construction.

The city fire brought economic losses and casualties, but it also brought opportunities for the transformation of urban construction. The transition after the Chicago fire incident was the most comprehensive. This transformation is reflected in the following aspects: First, the transformation of urban architectural culture and architectural style. The Chicago Fire incident promoted the birth of the “Chicago School” in the field of urban construction. It gradually formed the United States’ original function-oriented architectural style and architectural culture (Schons, 2011). This is also the result of the independent architectural and cultural exploration of the United States after the War of Independence. The second is the transformation of urban construction practices. After the Chicago fire, the planning, design, structure, and timber of urban construction began to transform in practice. Steel-concrete structure construction became the mainstream of urban architecture.

After the major transformation of urban planning and construction in Chicago, a wide range of urban roads, tall skyscrapers, and perfect infrastructure were built in the United States. The proportion of wooden buildings was getting lower and lower, and the city fires that frequently burned several blocks disappeared. Chicago became the hometown of skyscrapers in the world. Metropolitan architecture in New York, Boston, and other major cities in the US also began to adopt these new forms of architectural design (Leslie, 2013). Transformations in the land use, urban space, transportation network, fire control, disaster relief, and other institutional reforms began after the Great Chicago Fire. These transformations became the origin of modern urban planning and construction. It was the gradual institutional changes in urban planning and construction that have promoted a major transformation of US cities. It also contributed to the progress and prosperity of urbanization in the United States in the late 19th century.

When the Great Chicago Fire happened, due to a serious lack of firepower, it caused widespread criticism from all sectors of society. After the disaster, the Chicago Fire Department reorganized and began to fully implement militarized management. The city was divided into 18 areas of responsibility, and several fire brigades were set up in each area of ​​responsibility. New technologies and equipment were also emerging: On April 21st, 1878, wooden slides debuted at the fire station for the first time, and metal sliders appeared two years later (History of the Chicago Fire Department, 2004). In 1880, a new fire alarm system was installed. In 1883, the rotating platform ladder truck appeared, using a ladder mounted on a rotatable platform to rescue trapped people from higher floors of a building. In 1896, the first fireboat was on duty. By 1900, the Chicago Fire Department had established 17 brigades, 1,142 uniformed firefighters, equipped with five fireboats, two high-spraying vehicles, 101 steam fire pumps, 34 fire-fighting ladders, and 85 wagons dedicated for fire-fighting (History of the Chicago Fire Department, 2004). Combined with the improved fire-alarm and reporting system, a comprehensive modern fire-fighting system was finally in place.
Conclusion
By 1871 Chicago was a city of 300,000 people. Although it was devastated by the fire, the phoenix was reborn from the ashes, as the city reached a population of 500,000 in 1880 and 1 million in 1890. It gradually became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the United States. It was among the top five major cities in the world at that time and became an important episode in the history of urban development in the United States. The speed of Chicago’s development was staggering. Reinvention of the urban construction and management was the key to the rebirth after the fire in 1871. Despite the devastations of the fire, it created opportunities for Chicago to get rid of the European influence, explore its own way of architectural construction, and become a benchmark city of modern metropolis in the United States.