3-034-733 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Burning of Chicago, 1871. 'The dreadful fire which destroyed the most valuable part of this great commercial city on the shore of Lake Michigan...the number of houses and other buildings destroyed is about 20,000;...the total damage to property is estimated at 200,000,000 dols., or £40,000,000 sterling; and there are nearly 100,000 distressed persons in need of relief..."The wind sucked fire through the blocks, rolled up roofs like sheets of tissue paper, and burned them into the air." The fire swept five blocks along the south branch of the river clean of buildings. These were mainly cheap tenement houses, with a large warehouse and a factory or two...The flames leapt from house to house, from store to store, from street to street, until the north side of Lake-street was "a vast mountain of flame" from the river to the lake...Everywhere the atmosphere was filled with flames and smoke; the burning streets were crowded with half-dressed people endeavouring to make their escape...thousands of persons and horses inextricably commingled; poor people of all classes and every nationality, from Europe, China, and Africa, in the excitement, struggled with each other to get away. Hundreds were trampled under foot'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.