There has been a myth for so long that a cow owned by Kate O’Leary started the Great Chicago Fire. According to the myth, the cow kicked the lit lantern that started the flames. The story then became the subject of kids’ poetry:
Late one night, when we were all in bed,
Mrs. O’Leary lit a lantern in the shed.
Her cow kicked it over,
Then winked her eye and said,
“There’ll be a hot time in the
old town tonight!”
Destruction by The Great Chicago Fire:
The fire claimed somewhere near about 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois. The city kept burning for two days in 1871, killing hundreds of people, leaving more than 100,000 people homeless. This deadly fire devastated 17000 buildings, destroying about one-third of the entire Chicago and $4-$5 billion.
The truth behind the myth unraveled:
You will be shocked to know that it was not Kate O’Leary’s cow that started the fire so big. The man who wrote the O’Leary story later admitted that he made the cow angle to make the story interesting. The reality is the fire did start in Catherine O’Learys Barn in the middle of the night. The source of the fire is still not known, and because O’Leary claimed that she was asleep at the time when the fire started, so she might not have lit the shed with a lantern.
Yet the other speculation about the fire was that it might have been because of the meteor shower. Maybe one of the fragments of Bailey’s Comet started the fire. But in reality, meteorites by the time they make it to the ground, they are usually cold and cannot start a fire. The suspicion was because three other areas caught massive fire at the same time. But meteor was not the case. Other historians later confirmed that it was merely a coincidence.
Chicago was not the one with skyscrapers, as we see today. It had wood houses and roofs made of tar or shingle. This makes us think about how the fire would just have spread as each house was a feed for the flames. Chicago was known as ‘The Windy City’ with the sidewalks and streets, all having wood products in its making, one can just imagine that the fire once started would never stop. All these things just made Chicago the prey in 1871. It is believed that there was a strong south-western wind that took the fire to the heart of the city. The wind blew with it hot embers that laded on the highly inflammable roofs and further increased the fire.
People did not act quickly enough, the fire department was informed in about forty minutes, but that could have been done at the right time. The fire spread very quickly. As for the aftermaths of the fire, only three buildings in the area survived enough to be repaired: St. Micael’s Church, the Chicago Water Tower, and the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station.
