Timeline of the Chicago fire
PBS, American Experience, Chicago City of the Century
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/maps/index.html
9:45 o'clock on Sunday night, October 8, 1871, A fire starts in the O’Leary family’s
barn at DeKoven and Jefferson Streets.
12:00 midnight, the fire, fanned by the strong southwest wind, is on the move –and
terrified Chicagoans start to flee. The raging fire has leapt the southern branch of the
Chicago River. It ignites the waste and oil floating on the surface of the water.
2am the, flames engulf Conley’s patch a poor Irish area of the city, so quickly that
many residents are unable to escape. Soon the supposedly “fire proof” Courthouse
begins to burn. Authorities release prisoners held there. State St Bridge a major
conduit to the thus-far safe North Side also begins burning.
3am the fire leaps the main branch of the Chicago River and burns fiercely in the
North Division. Heat dust and cinders drive residents to Lincoln Park and the
cemetery at its Southern end. By 3:30am all hope of saving the city is shattered as the
waterworks goes up in flames. The city’s main source of drinking water is
contaminated.
4am escaping city residents are forced as Far East as they can go to the edge of Lake
Michigan. People begin to wade into the water as Michigan Ave blazes steadily.
Horse – drawn wagons furniture, personal belongings, and people clog wooden plank
lined streets.
6am William Ogden enormous lumber yard and railroad on the river bank burns. The
fire spreads to the Illinois Central railroad complex and the McCormick Reaper
works. Thousands of people remain trapped at the lake’s edge North side residents are
pushed farther north to the prairie.
10am until the densely populated district to the west of La Salle Street and between
Chicago Avenue and North Avenue had been wasted; there was no stay to the rapid
progress of the fire.
6pm At Fullerton Avenue and Clark Street, a little over two-and-a-half miles north of
the start of the fire it came to an end.