ESCI 1012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Great Chicago Fire, Chicago Fire Department, Natural Disaster
Document Summary
October 1871 coincidentally at the same time as the great chicago fire. In reality, the entire 185-man, 17-pump chicago fire department had just spent the previous night fighting their 28th fire of the week. Exhausted, the burned men, horses, and pumpers could not handle what the gales then brought. Embers from fires in surrounding countryside drifted over the city starting fires that approached from multiple directions. Winds blazed fires to combine into one fire. Not a coincidence that they occurred at the same time. All part of the same fire-prepped landscape. By september of 1871, drought had extended across upper midwest. Week of dry wind reduced soil moisture content, dried streams, and lowered water. Organic content in the soil was burning. I(cid:290) (cid:799)83(cid:799), gusta(cid:362)e beau(cid:289)o(cid:290)t (cid:290)oted that there (cid:363)as (cid:907)i(cid:290) a(cid:289)erica a ge(cid:290)eral hatred of trees(cid:908) In peshitog, there had only been one shower in 11 weeks (and that evaporated as it fell) Fire was a tool, not a foe.
