Strange by Colin Wilson

Author:Colin Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Great Chicago Fire, view from the west

Jack-in-the-Box Inferno

The autumn of 1871 was hot and dry across the Midwest. From July into October the region had suffered a relentless drought. In the prairies to the south and west, from the booming new city of Chicago to the dense forests of northern Michigan, no rain had fallen, and in spite of the Great Lakes, humidity was at an all-time low. The desiccated atmosphere was dusty and harsh, the plants were parched brown, and Chicago’s ever-present wind offered no relief. City dwellers, unprepared for a drought lasting into the winter months, could only hope for rain, and they prayed that no fires would break out before the weather broke.

At 9:25 PM on the evening of October 8, 1871, Fire Marshall Williams and his crew were called to a blaze on DeKoven Street in Chicago’s lumber district. Although only a single barn, belonging to Patrick O’Leary, was on fire, Williams had good reason to fear that the conflagration might spread. Just the previous day, four whole blocks of the city had burned down, the wooden buildings igniting like dry tinder. As the firemen fought the O’Leary blaze they noticed the wind beginning to rise and worked frantically to bring the flames under control before sparks spread it far and wide.

Williams later reported that when the fire was halted “it would not have gone a foot further; but the next thing I knew they came and told me that St. Paul’s Church, about two blocks north, was on fire.” Once again, Williams doused the blaze before it could spread to neighboring buildings, but “the next thing I knew the fire was in Bateham’s planing-mill.”

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