Customer Reviews

The Great Chicago Fire

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One interesting fact about the fire is that it was both the first and last of its kind of disaster. It was one of the first great calamities of the modern industrial age and yet Chicago was one of the last cities to burn down naturally without help from earthquakes or bombing. Although the catastrophe has been described countless times in many books and articles, few get beyond a basic account, saying merely that Chicago caught fire and burned in October of 1871. Cromie covers the entire fire from the first flames to the relief effort that began a few days later. He tells the story of Chicagoens both rich and poor who were caught up in the fast moving drama. The book is well illustrated and will appeal to most anyone, whether they have a serious interest in the subject or just want to see some good pictures and read the captions. In some ways this book is to the Great Chicago fire what 'A Night to Remember' is to the Titanic'. I doubt anyone will be dissapointed with it.

Cromie's book is a detailed account of the 1871 fire that destroyed much of Chicago (an even more devastating fire in terms of lives lost occurred on the very same day a few hundred miles north around Peshtigo, Wisconsin). He gives basically three reasons for the devastation: 1) the night before there was a major fire in the city that destroyed much property, knocked out fire-fighting equipment, and exhausted firefighters; 2) a relentless SW wind fanned the flames; and 3) Chicago was a city made of wood. Cromie relates quite a bit of the heroism that was displayed during the tragedy--also lots of bad behavior as well. A good historical account.

A nicely written book about the great Chicago Fire of October, 1871. This book has some nice illustrations and photographs, along with some human interest stories concerning the fire. The story is compelling in how it relates the burning of this city. Only 200-300 people died as a result of this disaster. The author relates how the fire occurred in Mrs. O'Leary's barn. With some early mistakes with personnel in the fire detection system, a small fire became large because of the tardy arrival of firefighters and the brisk wind. Since the city was mostly wood, the fire blew embers over the firefighters and lighted neighborhoods beyond the fire. The firefighters had fought a fierce fire the night before, and most were very tired as they started to fight this fire. The result was a burned area one mile wide by four miles deep. Most of the business district was burned out.
This is a nice read for those with only a vague notion of the fire. Since I live in the suburbs of Chicago, it was with interest when I read the streets where the fire occurred. The book also has some nice photographs and illustrations.

There have been other accounts of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, including several published almost immediately after the conflagration, but this succinct history of the disaster is probably considered the benchmark. Weeks without rain had transformed the wooden City of Chicago into a pile of dry kindling waiting for a spark to ignite it. Once the fire started in a barn behind the O'Leary residence on DeKoven Street, gale force winds carried the flaming embers far and wide.

The Chicago Fire Department was reasonably well equipped and staffed, but most of the firefighters summoned to the the fire on October 9, 1871 were also exhausted after battling a large scale blaze on the previous day. Precious minutes were lost when miscommunications delayed the arrival of several steam engines to the proper address. The heroic efforts of the fire department personnel were all for naught as the fire spread and damaged all three divisions of the city. Worse still, the fire raged out of control after the water pumping station that supplied the city's fire hydrants failed after being consumed in the fire.

The author, the late Robert Cromie, was the former book page editor of "The Chicago Tribune" and an accomplished journalist and the host of a book discussion program on local television. He produced a most readable account of the calamity and its aftermath. The destruction caused by the Great Fire provided the city with a unique opportunity to rebuild a new and improved city to replace the original one that had been reduced to ashes. Chicago's growth in the decades after the fire was phenomenal.

This edition of the book, which was first published in 1958, was a reprint issued in connection with the centennial anniversary of the fire in 1971. It is lavishly illustrated with photographs, maps and drawings. There are three minor shortcomings in the book: this edition did not provide an index or bibliography; frequently the text used addresses and street names that were in used during 1871 without providing the current street addresses that were put in place after Chicago revised its urban grid, so many readers may be confused as to locations; Cromie also omitted to fully identify many prominent Chicagoans described in the text in terms of their biographical backstories. Well versed readers will recognize many of these personages, but first time readers will not.

All in all, this is a commendable book.