WHEREAS, October 8, 2021, officially marks the 150lh Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, a calamitous event that left 300 people dead in its wake, 90,000 residents homeless, and 17,450 buildings destroyed resulting in the loss of $200 million in property spread across four square miles (2,000 acres) from DeKoven Street on the south up to Fullerton Avenue; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of this important anniversary by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, the conflagration began in the rear lot ofthe property owned by Patrick and Katherine O'Leary at 137 DeKoven Street in the Conley's Patch district on the Near West Side shortly before 9:15 p.m. under suspicious circumstances; and
WHEREAS, as vicious, prevailing winds blowing in from the west fanned the flames, the fire quickly jumped to the adjoining barns, sheds and wooden residential dwellings before the resources ofthe Chicago Fire Department could adequately respond; and
WHEREAS, the firemen, worn out and exhausted by their labors from the previous day battling a day4ong downtown fire in unusually hot and dry weather conditions that year, required 45 minutes to arrive at the point of origin on the West Side; and
WHEREAS, by which time the fire was out of control as hoses burst, equipment broke down and inadequate low water pressure failed to contain the wall of flames; and
WHEREAS, one by one, entire neighborhoods fell, from the impoverished immigrant quarters to exclusive Park Row and Terrance Row dwellings, the central business district, government buildings, the city bridewell, houses of worship and the retail and dry goods businesses along Lake Street driving thousands of terrified families into the streets as they attempted to cross the congested bridges spanning the Chicago River to the presumed safety of the North Side to escape wholesale death and destruction; and
WHEREAS, the city's most notable hotels and public buildings including the Sherman House, the Tremont House, th...
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