This is Angela Odell, and you are listening to Real Cool History for Kids, a podcast show featuring history told from a distinctly biblical worldview perspective. Welcome to an adventure.

Welcome to episode 148 of Real Cool History for Kids.

This episode is for Josiah DeKyper, who wanted to hear the story of the great Chicago

fire.

Hi, Josiah, this one's for you.

It was a crisp evening on October 8th in 1871, and the streets of Chicago buzzed with

life. The city was growing faster than

anyone could have imagined, with buildings stretching higher, and streets teeming with carriages

and pedestrians. Families set down for supper. Shopkeepers closed their doors for the night,

and the glow of gas lamps lit the streets.

Yet, in a humble barn on Decoven Street, something was about to happen that would change the city forever.

In that barn, a cow named Daisy, munched contentedly on a pile of hay.

She belonged to a family named the O'Leary's.

Catherine O'Leary, a hard-working Irish immigrant,

had finished her chores for the day and was resting in her small home nearby.

When Daisy kicked over a lantern in the barn, and the hay caught fire.

Or, at least that's how the legend goes. In reality,

no one is absolutely certain how this massive disaster began. We do know that in just minutes, what started as a small flicker turned into a crackling roaring blaze, which hungrily consumed all the dry wood of the barn and then leapt to nearby structures.

The fire raced through the densely packed neighborhoods and jumped from house to house and was just built intensity by the second.

You see, in those days, Chicago was a city built mostly of wood, wooden homes,

wooden sidewalks, and, well, even wooden streets in some places. The summer and fall had been

extremely dry because it hadn't rained much in weeks, leaving everything as dry as kindling.

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