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While the causes of the Great Chicago fire were a mystery, the results were well documented. As seen in Bessie Bradwell Helmer’s narritive of the fire, the people of Chicago were deeply affected by the blaze. An interesting statement that Bradwell makes is the claim that Chicago was poorly designed to resist fire. This shows that the residents of Chicago were well aware of the danger but were not prepared for the scale of the 1871 fire. It is even noted that smaller fires occured which foreshadowed the larger disaster that would ravage the city. In a sense, these commonly occuring smaller fires contributed to a “boy who cried wolf situation”. The narrative of the fire can be connected to Jonathan Bergman’s disaster analysis in order for us to understand society in Chicago at the time.
The reaction to the fire is very bewildering to modern eyes. It is surprising that the people of Chicago at first were unfazed by the smoke but only reacted once the danger was imminent. This could point to the fact that fires may have been just a part of life in Chicago. Although small fires may have been common, what followed was uncommon. Helmer highlights the utter chaos that sparked following the spreading of the fire. It can be said that the fabric of society continued to disintegrate with the growing of the fire. Social classes, such as middle class reporters from the Tribune, were brought to the same level as prisoners released from the jail. The fire temporarily caused an utter destruction of the tall walls of class seperation of the late nineteenth century.