Assignment 7 Nick Falk

On October 8, 1871, the flame began that would be later known as The Great Chicago Fire. This was an enormous fire that burned through a majority of the city of Chicago. It completely burned about three square miles in the downtown area of Chicago. This left more than 100,000 homeless due to the wreckage. There were a lot of factors that really helped the flame get to the magnitude at which it occurred. First of all, most of the structures made at this time were mainly made of wood. Also there was a drought near Chicago that lasted nearly four months. There also were high winds and an error by the fire department all helped create this two day fire into the catastrophe we have read about. This event is indeed bad.  It killed over 300 people. This devastated the city of Chicago, and it made Chicago start completely over. For Chicago, this fire made a lot of people’s lives a lot harder, because everyone lost everything, and all of the places for work were destroyed, too. It made people’s lives tougher for that time. Loathe is not a good word that I would describe this event as, but unfortunate or saddening would  be how I would describe the way I feel about the families situation, but this fire was a way to help create the economically booming Chicago we know today.