Analysis Of The Great Fire By Jim Murphy

Everyone knows about the huge fire that was happened in Chicago in 1871 right? Well if you haven't, why are you reading this first? Go read "The Great Fire" by Jim Murphy! Done? Okay then let's get started! So, In paragraph 13, the author says and I quote " Chicago had been built largely on soggy marshland that flooded every time it rained." When the people who were first building the city had this problem, they came up with a pretty good solution ( at least that's what they probably thought) They decided to build the whole city out of wood, this includes the sidewalks, houses, outhouses, (yuck!) sheds, and a lot of other things. ( see paragraph 11) The thing is that wood can catch on fire very easily, even the author said " the 23,000 acres

( see paragraph 14) So, let's take a minute here and brainstorm some ideas that could have first of all reduced the fire rate, and could have lessened the damage in the great fire of Chicago. Hm, well one thing they could've done is enforce and encourage that people stored their highly flammable items in a safe place such as in a stone storage building, underground, or somewhere where the fire would have a hard time reaching because in paragraph 9 it says this. " A shed attached to the barn was already engulfed by flames. It contained two tons of coal for the winter and a large supply of kindling

There were probably other sheds like this too, filled with coal and kindling. Now, let's think of one more, hm. How about having small or large reservoirs all around the city? Because according to the presentation that the Clackamas fire district made, which was titled "The History of Fire and Fire Codes" stated that in 1871 in Chicago there was only one central reservoir of water that could be used, but it burnt down or got destroyed. This is a very large problem because water was the main thing to put fires out and still is. If they decided to put some sort of system in which water is spread out throughout the city, they could've had more water quicker than going to the central reservoir to get it, which would cause them to go back and forth and lose a lot of precious time. In summary, the two main things that could've changed the outcome of the great fire in Chicago in 1871 is a place that is safe to store highly flammable materials, such as coal and kindling, as well as small or large reservoirs throughout the city so that the firefighters could have more water in less