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Chicago is a city that was nearly destroyed by an all -consuming fire that ignited in October of 1871. The fiery inferno that ignited the city threatened to destroy all hope once envisioned for the connection city between eastern manufacturing and western agricultural resources as Frederick F. Cook referenced in his article A Bird’s Eye View of Pre-Fire Chicago. There were a series of unfortunate occurrences that contributed to the massive amount of destruction in the city that fateful evening; both natural and unnatural. The first natural force that had an impact on the Chicago fire was the lack of rain that the city had experienced in the previous four months (less than 2 inches) as detailed by Cook. The second natural force that fueled the intensity of the flames was an untimely strong southwesterly wind that caused the fire to split off, simultaneously igniting multiple areas in the city as Bessie Bradwell Helmer documented in her narrative of the fire The Great Conflagration. Unnatural forces that exacerbated the firestorm had to do with the way the city had been constructed. In the rush to build an economic metropolis of commerce and transportation building construction took place that did not have a universal standard for building codes and safety. As my classmate @mvanderdussen discussed some of the destroyed buildings had previously deemed as safe. Considering the points of my classmate, then was the fault with the builders or code enforcers? Cook refers to a second unnatural force that aggravated the fire conditions which was the large quantity of wood used in throughout the city in buildings, streets and sidewalks. From a forward vantage point it is “easy” to critique the unnatural forces as having the greater negative impact on the city because it shows a lack of regard for human life and safety. As referenced on murphyslaws.net “Murphy’s Original Law” states: “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it” is a fitting description for pre- fire construction in Chicago. However, in this particular disaster I also believe that “Murphy’s Law”; which states “If anything can go wrong – it will” summarizes the totality of incidences that contributed to the severity of the “Great Fire”.
