Why Is Chicago Ready To Fire

417 Words2 Pages

Chicago TheTo City Ready to Burn In 1871, Chicago witnessed a horrible disaster. It was a city ready to burn to flames. In the book, The Great Fire by Jim Murphy clearly shows just how easy it was for Chicago to catch fire. He also shows enough evidence to why the city was ready to burn. Back in those days everything was made out of wood. Sidewalks, roads, buildings, interior, and more things were made out of wood. I’m no Einstein but i’m sure wood isn’t exactly “fire proof” or “fire resistant” if that is even a real word. Anyway everything was made of wood, in fact more than two-thirds of the buildings were made of wood. Shocking right? Actually Chicago holded 59,500 buildings back then (not all of the 59,500 buildings were made of wood.) at that time. Back in 1871, most people had flammable items. In that time they didn’t have as much skill with buildings like …show more content…

In fact in the book William had to get to the drugstore to reach to the alarm. Once he arrived, he wasn't allowed to pull it. It made everything worse. There were other alarms but that was one of the first alarm and nearest alarm he could reach. The city also didn’t have fire alarms in almost every building, just the ones that could afford it. Even some schools didn’t have a fire alarm. The fire could have been able to be prevented by using other materials. Some buildings that weren't made out of wood, still caught fire. The United States was able to recover from those horrible events and focus on other things. Many events caused the Great Fire of Chicago. If you were to visit Chicago today, you wouldn’t realize that The Great Fire had ripped through Chicago. The city was able to be repaired to the city it is today, but the events that happened that day left people with horrible memories, but if it wasn’t for the fire who knows how Chicago would be like