Great Chicago Fire | We Are Going to Have a Burn | 1

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1871, Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world. Built almost entirely of wood, it was also a tinderbox. That October, a severe drought ravaged the city. Fires ignited constantly, and Chicago’s firefighters were at their breaking point. But the worst was yet to come.

On a hot, windy night, a fire broke out in a barn owned by Irish immigrants Catherine and Patrick O’Leary. By the time firefighters arrived to the scene, gale-force winds were fanning the flames with astonishing speed. Over the next 30 hours, Chicago would battle a raging inferno more destructive than any ever faced by an American city.

But from the ashes would also come rebirth—a transformation that would turn Chicago into a modern metropolis.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine its October 8th, 1871 in Chicago, Illinois, around 9 o'clock at night.
0:24.0	A hot, dry wind blows prairie dust down the wooden sidewalks of your west side neighborhood.
0:29.0	You're walking home after a long day at your job as a cart driver, past wooden bars and little houses with tar paper roofs.
0:36.0	Your neighbors are mostly Irish immigrants, and their homes are as small as the humble cottages they left behind in the old country, just more closely packed together.
0:45.0	You're almost home, but your wooden leg is killing you.
0:49.0	You stop and lean back against a fence to adjust it. From a nearby porch you hear a neighbor call out.
0:55.0	Evening Sullivan, not the scorcher today, huh? Sure was, dry as a tender box.
1:01.0	How long has it been since we had some rain? Too long.
1:05.0	Across the street, other neighbors are having a party. You watch through the window as they dance a jig.
1:11.0	The man who called out to you, exhales cigarsmoke with a disapproving sigh.
1:15.0	Mrs. O'Leary won't like all that carrying on. She used to get up to milk her cows in a few hours.
1:22.0	The dry, hot wind picks up, carrying dust and with it, a scent. Hey, do you smell that?
1:29.0	It's an acrid odor, like the embers of a campfire. And then something catches your eye, a flicker of light in the O'Leary barn next door.
1:38.0	Your heart pounds as he relies it's a flame. Fire! Fire! Fire!
1:43.0	You run toward the barn as fast as your wooden leg can carry you. Your neighbor jumps down from his porch and follows, shouting as he runs.
1:50.0	Help! Fire! Fire in the O'Leary barn!
1:57.0	You swing open the barn door together, instantly feeling a blast of heat.
2:02.0	Look up and see the blaze ripping through the hay loft.
2:05.0	Jesus, no saving this. Looks to me it's going to burn up in minutes. Now we have to do something.
2:11.0	The one stall, a startled horse, is rearing up on its hind legs.
	...

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