1871 — Oct 8–10, The Great Chicago Fire, IL –250-300
— 1,152 FEMA. Principal Threats Facing Communities…[EM] Coordinators. 1993, 60.[1]
–250-300 Blanchard[2] estimate based on review of sources noted below.[3]
— ~300 Chicago Tribune. “Great Chicago Fire of 1871.” Accessed 9-28-2008.
— <300 Groves. The Great Chicago Fire — October 8-10, 1871. Illinois Digital Env. 2006.
— 300 Gunn. Encyclopedia of Disasters (Vol. 1). 2008, p. 121.
— <300 Sanders. The Management of Losses Arising from Extreme Events. 2002, p. 175.
— <300 Sawislak. “Fire of 1871.” Encyclopedia of Chicago. 2005.
— >300 Sewell. “The Great Calamity!”…Great Chicago Fire of…8th and 9th of October, 1871.
–250-300 Rosenberg/Peck. “Megadeaths.” Bryant. Handbook of Death & Dying. 2003, p. 223.
–150-300 Country Beautiful. Great Fires of America. 1973, p. 57.
— >250 Asbury. “The Great Chicago Fire,” p. 44 in Kartman. Disaster! 2007.
— 250 Childs. A History of the United States In Chronological Order… 1886, p. 224.
— 250 History.com. “This Day in History, Disaster, October 7, 1871, Massive Fire…”
— 250 Lowell Sun, MA. “Fires and Fire Losses,” April 30, 1908, p. 16.
— 250 National Interagency Fire Center. “Historically Significant Wildland Fires.” 2007.
— 250 National Fire Protection Association. Key Dates in Fire History. 1996.
— ~250 Pingree.[4] “Chicago and Peshtigo 1871.” Fire Journal, 65/4, July 1971, p. 111.
— >250 Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and NY: Chambers, 1992, p.96
— 200 Haines and Sando. Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires… 1969.[5]
Narrative Information
Childs: “…the most disastrous conflagration ever before witnessed in the annals of this country. This last great fire commenced on Sunday evening, October 8th, and continued to rage on the forenoon of the following day. The estimated number of lives lost was two hundred and fifty; of persons rendered homeless, ninety-eighty thousand five hundred; of buildings consumed, seventeen thousand five hundred; and the value of the property destroyed, one hundred and ninety-two millions of dollars. It included the business and the best built portion of the city. The total area burned over, including streets, the pavements of which were generally rendered worthless, was two thousand acres. The fire did its work so completely, that in not more than a dozen cases were the chimneys or fire-walls of the great blocks or any of the buildings left standing. It was possible, standing on the ground, to see across the burned district for two or three miles without anything to obstruct the vision, where, before the fire, were standing huge blocks of buildings of stone and brick.” (Childs 1886, p. 224.)
Goodspeed: “At 9:32 an alarm was sounded, summoning the brigade to the corner of Jefferson and DeKoven streets. Ere the first engine was on the ground, the flame had enveloped half a dozen outbuildings, and was pouring its columns upon the city to the southward and eastward with the resistless grandeur and celerity of a barbaric invasion.
“The firemen, convinced of the impossibility of saving anything in the district now attacked, confined their efforts to checking the northward march of the fire. Heroic as these efforts were, they were in vain. The flames ran along the wooden sidewalks, and whole tenements would burst into flames as simultaneously as if a regiment of incendiaries were at work. The narrow streets were crowded with appalled spectators, half-dressed women with aprons thrown over their heads running distractedly hither and thither, and men tearing furniture to pieces in the furious haste with which they flung it out of doors or dragged it through the crowd. The element had the best of the battle so far….The advance of the fire was strongly defined in two great columns running north, one between Jefferson and Clinton streets, the other between Clinton and Canal streets. The latter led the way, and as one o’clock struck, had seized the buildings on Van Buren street, while the other was spreading more slowly along West Harrison.
“One o’clock had just struck, and a sudden puff of the variable wind blew down a curved wing of the great golden-red cloud above our heads. It fell like the sheer of a sabre, and in a second a red glare shot up on the South Side, as if the blow had fallen on a helmet and sent up a glitter of sparks and a spurt of blood. The fire had overleaped the narrow river and lodged itself in the very heart of the South Division. The angry bell tolled out, and in a moment the bridges were choked with a roaring, struggling crowd, through which the engines cleft a difficult way toward th new peril. The wind had piled up a pyramid of rustling flame and smoke into the mid-air. Lower currents at times varied and drove tides of fire athwart the great roaring stream. When these met, eddies that made the eye dizzy were formed, which sucked up blazing brands and embers into their momentary whirl, and then flung them earthward. In such a fiery maelstrom had a shower of sparks and large fragments of detached roofing been hurled into the neighborhood of the old Armory. The skirmishing was over, and man and fire were now grappling in earnest where the prize was millions of money and hundreds of lives.
“When once the fire had established itself in the South Division the task of following the course or describing its ravages in detail became an utter impossibility. As well might a private soldier endeavor to paint Waterloo, Sedan, or Gravelotte. All that the writer can say is that everybody was mad, and everything was hell. The earth and sky were fire and flames; the atmosphere was smoke. A perfect hurricane was blowing, and drew the fiery billows with a screech through the narrow alleys between the tall buildings as if it were sucking them through a tube; great sheets of flames literally flapped in the air like sails on shipboard. The sidewalks were all ablaze, and the fire ran along them almost as rapidly as a man could walk. The wooden block pavements, filled with an inflammable composition, were burning in parallel lines like a gridiron. Showers of sparks, intermingled with blazing brands, were borne aloft by one eddy of the breeze, and rained down into the street by the next, while each glowed a moment and was gone, or burned sullenly, like the glare of an angry eye. Roofing became detached in great sheets, and drove down the sky like huge blazing arrows. The dust and smoke filled one’s eyes and nostrils with bitter and irritating clouds. There was fire everywhere, under foot, overhead, around. It ran along tindery roofs, it sent out curling wisps of blue smoke from under eaves, it smashed glass with an angry crackle, and gushed out in a torrent of red and black ; it climbed in delicate tracery up the fronts of buildings, licking up with a serpent tongue little bits of wood work; it burst through roofs with a rattling rush, and hung out towering blood-red signals of victory. The flames were of all colors, pale pink, gold, scarlet, crimson, blood-hued, amber. In one place, on a tower covered with galvanized iron sheets, the whole roof burned of a light green, while the copper nails were of a beautiful sparkling ruby. Over all was the frowning sky, covered with clouds varied by an occasional undazzled star.
“….The horses, maddened by heat and noise, and irritated by falling sparks, neighed and screamed with affright and anger, and reared, and kicked, and bit each other, or stood with drooping tails and rigid legs, ears laid back, and eyes wild with amazement, shivering as if with cold….” [pp. 133-136]
“As many as a dozen different fires were raging at once; the flames on Wells, Franklin, and Market streets marched steadily toward the north-east, crossing Madison street, below Wells. But
before they had reached this point, the Union Bank and Oriental Building were on fire, the Chamber of Commerce was seamed with thin wreaths of smoke, the low brick block opposite the
Sherman House was ablaze, and the roof of the Court House was strewn with embers, each of which sank out of sight to be succeeded by ominous puffs of pale-blue smoke, slowly reddening….” [p. 138]
“It was broad day now [9th], and the sun was up. At least a small crimson ball hung in a pall of smoke, and people said that was the sun. For the rest, all consciousness of the hour and date was lost. The wind had freshened, and the tumult increased.. The fire had pursued its inexorable march in the van of the south-west wind across the south side of the river. Toward the west it had burned more slowly, and it was nearly noon before the distilleries at Madison street bridge yielded. The north side was already attacked in a dozen places. Of the south division, between State street and the river, all the slighter buildings had been wiped out, many of the larger edifices were in ruins, and a few of the stoutest were still ablaze, islands of fire. Streets and blocks were no longer distinguishable. The gap between the ruins were, it is true, still filled with people, but they were not working to save anything. There was nothing to save, no place whence to escape. The tumult was Still loud, but it was changed in its character. It was now the wailing of children seeking their parents, of mothers seeking their families….” [p. 140]
“The curious now pressed forward to see, and the dishonest to steal. These coming from the west and extreme south, met the throngs flying from the north, and made human eddies in every street. But the fire was practically over, the battle had rolled away to the northward, leaving behind it its ruins, through which poured the fugitive and the wounded, those who came on errands of curiosity or mercy, and those who prowled about to pillage and destroy….” [p. 143]
“The noise of the exploding material used in blowing up houses in the track of the flames reminded one of the booming of heavy siege guns, and the commune and the reign of terror were
being realized in the very heart of the Garden City of the West.
“Wells and State street bridges were caught by the flames, and were soon enveloped by them from one end to the other. La Salle street tunnel drew in the mighty volume of flame from the south, and became a submarine hell. With electric velocity the flames seized upon the frame blocks fronting the river on the north, and leaped from square to square faster than an Arab steed
could gallop. The brands formed a kind of infernal skirmish line, feeling the way for the grand attack. The storm howled with the fury of a maniac, the flames raged and roared with the unchained malice of a million fiends. Nothing human could stand before, or check these combined elements of annihilation. They defied man’s greatest efforts, and appeared to be kindled and fed by the arch-demon himself….
“It worked with the wind and against it, with a frightful impartiality. It held a direct northward course to Division street bridge, near the gas-works, where there are some large vacant lots, rather damp, and without any combustible surroundings. At this point it took an oblique turn eastward, toward Lincoln Park, leaving the Newberry School on North avenue, and sweeping along to Lincoln avenue to Dr. Dyer’s new house, where, on that side, it halted, having burned itself out. It left a couple of frame buildings in front of the park entrance, sparing the fine park itself, hardly a shrub being injured. Not so with the old cemeteries, Protestant and Catholic. The grass on the graves was burned, the wooden crosses were consumed, and the grave stones were splintered into dust. The trees were withered like dry leaves, hardly a skeleton remaining, while furniture piled there for safety by the earlier fugitives only served to make a funeral pyre. The very pest-house, down on the lake shore, was burned to the ground, the miserable patients being obliged to seek in the water the fate from which they fled. The affrighted fugitives in the cemeteries fled madly towards the park, while the air resounded with their cries and lamentations. Meanwhile the conflagration swept eastward to the lake, taking everything that lay before it. By this time daylight was beginning to dawn, and with it the great water works, the pride of the city, were discovered to be charred and unrecognizable ruins.
“The flames did not advance in a solid column as on the south side, but broke into sections, starting conflagrations here and there, while the great main fire rushed upon what was left, and made havoc of the whole. The fire spared one corner of Kinzie street, a few houses between Market street and the bridge, one elevator (Newberry’s), a few lumber yards, and a coal yard or two. With this exception it swept along the North Branch to the gas-works, taking every stick and stone that lay in its line….” [pp. 148-149]
“To describe this fire in its details through the North Division would be utterly impossible. It was like a battle, where all was din, smoke, confusion, and turmoil. Each individual of the vast, fleeing tide can tell a different story of peril and escape. Before that awful front of flame the streets yet unburned were packed and jammed with myriads of human beings of every age, sex, and condition. It reminded one of a disastrous retreat, the baggage blocking up the highways, while the very horses were burned to death beneath the loads of household goods crowded upon their wagons. Hundreds of the affrighted animals ran away, mad with pain and terror, crushing in their flight men, women, and children. The principal lines of retreat for the north side community
living west of Clark street and north of Oak street were over Erie and Indiana street, Chicago avenue, and North avenue bridges. They retired to the prairie in the neighborhood of the rolling mills, or else took refuge with their terrified and trembling friends in the West Division. The North Side, taking a line from Canal street north, was completely annihilated. The little portion that escaped belonged more properly to the north-western section.
“On Erie street and Chicago avenue the loss of life was fearful. The bridges were choked with fugitives and baggage. The wagons became entangled, and the frightened people either plunged into the river and were drowned, or else fell down never to rise, suffocated by the frightful smoke. The scene was enough to unnerve the stoutest heart….” [pp. 150-151]
“At nine o’clock on Monday morning, sixteen hours after the breaking out of the conflagration, the varnish factory and the rest took fire, raising a wall of flame between the people and the west.
All now gave themselves up for lost. The brands came down by thousands, causing the water to hiss where they fell. The clothes of women caught fire from this fatal shower, and one old woman, named McAvoy, was burned to death before she could be rescued.
“The smoke grew more dense every moment, and the sense of suffocation was dreadful. Women screamed in utter despair, while the poor children were stricken mute with terror, A number of people were smothered at the bath house. Thousands threw themselves on their faces in the hot sand, while hundreds rushed into the lake up to their necks. The final day could not have brought more terror with its dawn. The great fear was that the north pier itself would go, in which event hundreds, if not thousands, of people must have perished. Fortunately, between the varnish factory and the foot of the pier there lay a broad expanse of sand, and the people on the pier used their hats and a few buckets to extinguish the brands that continued to fall upon the structure. At eleven o’clock that morning the factory was burned out, the pier was saved, and the people began to hope.
“When the sun went down that Monday night, the 10th of October, 1871, he set upon a waste of ruined homes, the lost treasures of grief-wrung hearts, all that remained of world-renowned Chicago….” [pp. 154-155]
“It was this fire to the north that undoubtedly induced the weak and exhausted to take refuge under the approaches to the bridge [Chicago Avenue Bridge], being unable to run around the fire to the north of the avenue, which was rapidly progressing both north and east. How many threw themselves into the river, with the vain hope of being able to cross the river or of being picked up, it is impossible to tell, but it is to be feared that in their mad and hopeless desperation many people in their flight from a death by fire, found a death by water.
“In a large blacksmith-shop, just south of the bridge, a number of workmen—stated to be sixteen—rushed into their burning building to save their tools, but the fire proved too much… While catching up their tools, the walls of the building fell in and buried them in its burning ruins….”[p. 194.]
“East of Dearborn street…the homeless occupants of the houses in many cases rushed to the narrow beach which bounds this portion of the North Division on the east, and the same sufferings that occurred on the portion of the beach referred to south of this were repeated and aggravated by the narrowness of the beach. How many were killed, how many dangerously burned, it will be impossible to find out. Relatives and friends have not waited for the coroner, but have buried their own dead on their own responsibility, and no one person will ever know the names, or even the number, of the victims of the fire in the North Division…. Children, as is usual in poor districts, seemed to swarm around every building, and how many of these, left to their own care, infants, toddling children, little boys and girls, sank before the fire, it is impossible to estimate. Suffice it to say that hundreds have been missed who were seen at the fire, but never since….” [p. 199]
“The city will be rebuilt better than before. It will be a handsomer and a safer city than it could ever have been without this fire, but its purchase money strikes at the money centres of the world. Recuperation has already commenced, but it began in Chicago on Tuesday, in a city from which every public building, every newspaper, every power-press, all leading hotels, all but one wholesale store, eighteen churches, two great railway depot structures, six of its bridges, six large elevators, fifty vessels, and sixteen thousand dwellings had disappeared totally….” [p. 209]
“Strolling through the town in the day-time, you see that it must have been a heat of singular intensity that melted down six miles of brick and mortar so soon into one undistinguishable mass. It took only about twelve hours to virtually finish the work; all that was done after that, was the after-wrath of the flame gleaning about the edges of the field it had reaped. But there has never been a fire which so completely attended to its business and slighted no part of its work. It seems like a mere figure of speech to speak of a quarter utterly destroyed…..” [p. 210]
“…with…[few] exceptions, the central region of Chicago has ceased to exist. You can look through it to the far off waste of the North Division….” [p. 211]
“A naked estimate of the value of property actually destroyed cannot contain any adequate conception of the immense damage sustained by the city in its industries and in near and remote business prospects. If we say that 1,100 squares, or more than 2,200 acres, were swept by the remorseless flames in the space of twenty-four hours; that from 20,000 to 26,000 buildings were utterly devoured or left in heaps of unsightly ruins; that the value of the buildings alone was fully $75,000,000, and of their contents at least as much more, we are oppressed by the magnitude of our statements and really comprehend nothing. Regarding the $150,000,000 of property consumed as productive capital–and most of it was that or its equivalent–the income therefrom, reckoned at the moderate rate of six per cent, was no less than $9,000,000 a year; a sum sufficient to pay perpetually the wages of 7,000 workmen at two dollars a day each, and 3,000 salaried men with salaries of $1,500 a year each; in other words, a sum sufficient for the comfortable support of no less than 40,000 souls.
“In saying that the direct losses, regarded as capital, represented the wages fund of 10,000 men, and that the arrest of business represents for the time being a wages fund even greater, it is not by any means meant that more than 20,000 men are thrown out of employment, and 100,000 human beings deprived of the means of support. Thanks to the modern system of insurance, to the modern spirit of enterprise, and to the energy and large-heartedness of our own people, but very few willing hands will long remain idle. Common laborers and such mechanics as are willing to rough it for a season, will find plenty to do in clearing away the rubbish and erecting either permanent or temporary structures….” [pp. 369-370]
“The fire, whose intensity melted all things, was able to so destroy human bodies that not a trace of them should remain. This fact serves to account for the utter loss of many persons known to have been in the vicinity where the fire appeared and wrought most suddenly and rapidly. It will, therefore, never be known who perished, and how many….” [pp. 401-402]
“…Whatever the indirect cause of the fire, it is plain that the immediate aggravating conditions were such as rarely occur. Long-continued positive drought, peculiar dryness of the atmosphere, a heavy wind that increased to a tornado, vast masses of pine wood and coal, weary firemen, and finally utter loss of water to feed the engines…” (Goodspeed, Rev. Edgar Johnson. History of the Great Fires in Chicago and the West. 1871. p. 133.)
Groves: “In October 1871, Chicago was the fourth largest city in the United States with over 334,000 residents. Over 60,000 buildings (90% made of wood) were squeezed into the city limits, along with hundreds of miles of wooden streets and sidewalks. The city was also the country’s woodworking center, home to dozens of furniture manufacturers and lumberyards. In addition, the previous two months had been unseasonably dry, as the city had seen only one inch of rain since July. In short, Chicago in 1871 was a tinderbox and the city employed only 185 firefighters.
“Shortly before 9 pm on Sunday, October 8, 1871, a fire started in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary.[6] Although firemen responded within minutes, the fire had already spread to nearby barns and houses, engulfing thirty buildings in as many minutes. By that point the scarcity of fire personnel combined with the strong winds sweeping through the dry, wooden environment effectively doomed the city. Fire Marshal Robert A. Williams later described the blaze as “a hurricane of fire and cinders.” (Groves 2006, The Great Chicago Fire)
Groves: “Over the course of the next thirty hours, the fire consumed nearly 18,000 buildings, killing over 300 residents and leaving another 100,000 homeless. A rainstorm on the morning of Tuesday, October 10, finally extinguished the flames, but parts of the city were so hot that it took another two days before inspectors and rescue personnel could reach all of the areas that had been destroyed.” (Groves 2006, The Great Chicago Fire)
Groves: “The response to the fire, and the subsequent investigations and policy changes, represent some of the earliest examples of modern emergency response practices. For example, by the afternoon of Monday, October 9, fire engines and firefighters began arriving in Chicago from elsewhere in Illinois and from cities as far away as Milwaukee and Cincinnati, illustrating the growing sense of community among the fire profession during times of overwhelming emergency. Also, the importance of a well-funded, properly trained fire department was now recognized as a fundamental necessity in large cities. Prior to the fire, the under-funded Chicago Fire Department had requested that the city hire more men, build more fire hydrants, and create a fire inspection department, but the city declined, afraid that higher taxes would inhibit the growth of business. After Chicago was destroyed, city governments elsewhere in the country found it difficult to ignore the importance of well-funded fire and emergency departments.
“The later investigations into the cause of the fire and the city’s response were also contemporary in nature, not only due to their thoroughness but also because of the widespread coverage by journalists from across the United States. The Chicago Board of Police and Fire Commissioners conducted an official investigation into the cause of the fire, focusing on the O’Leary family and their barn, but the commissioners never determined a definite cause. One popular myth had the fire starting when one of the O’Leary cows knocked over a kerosene lantern while being milked by Mrs. O’Leary, but the false story was later attributed to an anti-Irish journalist trying to lay the blame for the fire entirely on the immigrant family. Historians have since exonerated Mrs. O’Leary and her cow, but the exact cause of the fire remains unknown to this day.” (Groves 2006, The Great Chicago Fire.)
History.com: “…at its height, it was as much as a mile wide.” (History.com. This Day in History…Oct 8, 1871.)
History.com: “The fire prompted an outbreak of looting and lawlessness. Five companies of soldiers stationed in Nebraska and Kansas were summoned to Chicago and martial law was declared on October 11, ending three days of chaos. The military stayed for two weeks restoring order. Meanwhile, refugees filled the beaches of Lake Michigan, waiting until they could safely return to the city.” (History.com. This Day in History…Oct 8, 1871.)
Sources
Asbury, Herbert. “The Great Chicago Fire,” pp. 38-46 in Kartman, Ben. Disaster! 2007. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=lynBIKvEDBQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Chicago Tribune. “Great Chicago Fire of 1871.” Accessed September 28, 2008 at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/disasters-accidents/fires/great-chicago-fire-of-1871-EVHST000060.topic
Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Country Beautiful Editors. Great Fires of America. Waukesha, WI: Country Beautiful, 1973.
Cowan, David. Great Chicago Fires: Historic Blazes That Shaped a City. Lake Claremont Press, 2001, 169 pages. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZHPg3siVm4EC&dq=1910+Meat+packing+plant+fire+Chicago,+IL&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Principal Threats Facing Communities and Local Emergency Management Coordinators: A Report to the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. Washington, DC: FEMA, April 1993.
Goodspeed, Rev. Edgar Johnson. History of the Great Fires in Chicago and the West. NY: H.S. Goodspeed & Co., 1871. Google preview accessed 8-8-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=2nsJAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Groves, Adam. The Great Chicago Fire — October 8-10, 1871. Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship. 2006. Accessed 8-8-2019 at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/82
Gunn, Angus M. Chapter 27, “Chicago, Illinois, Fire, October 8, 1871.” Pp. 119-121 in: Encyclopedia of Disasters: Environmental Catastrophes and Human Tragedies, Volume 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.
Haines, Donald A. and Rodney W. Sando. Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires in the North Central Region (USDA Forest Service Research Paper NC-34). St. Paul MN: North Central Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1969, 23 pages. Accessed at: http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/rp/rp_nc034.pdf
History.com. This Day in History, Disaster, October 7, 1871. “Massive Fire Burns in Wisconsin.” Accessed at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&displayDate=10/07&categoryId=disaster
Kartman, Ben. Disaster! Read Books, 2007. Partially digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=lynBIKvEDBQC&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Lowell Sun, MA. “Fires and Fire Losses,” April 30, 1908, p. 16. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=56171711
National Interagency Fire Center. “Historically Significant Wildland Fires.” Accessed 8-8-2019 at: https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_histSigFires.html
Pingree, Daniel (NFPA Statistician). “Chicago and Peshtigo 1871.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 65, No. 4, July 1971, 6 pages.
Rosenberg, Jerome, and Dennis L. Peck. “Megadeaths: Individual Reactions and Social Responses to Massive Loss of Life.” Pp. 223-232 in Bryant, Clifton D. (Ed.). Handbook of Death & Dying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=3z9EpgisKOgC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=true
Sanders, D.E.A. (Chair), et al. The Management of Losses Arising from Extreme Events. GIRO, 2002, 261 pgs. At: http://www.actuaries.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/18729/Sanders.pdf
Sawislak, Karen. “Fire of 1871.” Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago, IL: Chicago Historical Society, 2005. Accessed at: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1740.html
Sewell, Alfred L. “The Great Calamity!” Scenes, Incidents and Lessons of The Great Chicago Fire of the 8th and 9th of October, 1871. Also Some Account of Other Great Conflagrations of Modern Times, and the Burning of Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Chicago: Alfred L. Sewell, Publisher. 1871. At: http://books.google.com/books?id=x7ZHAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Smith, Roger. Catastrophes and Disasters. Edinburgh and New York: W & R Chambers, 1992.
[1] The authors most probably mistakenly use the death toll figure from the Peshtigo fire, going on at same time.
[2] Compilation developed by B. Wayne Blanchard in 2008 and modified in 2017 and 2019 for inclusion in: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com
[3] A precise death toll was not known at the time and is not knowable (see Goodspeed excerpts below to get a sense of the uncertainties). We choose to form our range from the two numbers most commonly found — 250 and 300.
[4] Daniel Pingree was the National Fire Protection Association Statistician. Fire Journal was NFPA publication.
[5] Do not use as low-end of our range in that it is an outlier, not in keeping with the majority of sources consulted.
[6] 137 De Koven Street, southwest Chicago. (History.com. This Day in History…Oct 8, 1871.)