Current:Home > MarketsOpinion: 150 years after the Great Chicago Fire, we're more vulnerable-LoTradeCoin
Opinion: 150 years after the Great Chicago Fire, we're more vulnerable
View Date:2024-12-24 09:06:34
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire. It may sound strange to call something so deadly "great," but it suits Chicago's self-image as a place where things are bigger, taller, and greater, even tragedies.
The 1871 fire killed an estimated 300 people. It turned the heart of the city, wood-frame buildings quickly constructed on wooden sidewalks, into ruins, and left 100,000 people homeless.
Our family has an engraving from the London Illustrated News of Chicagoans huddled for their lives along an iron bridge. The reflection of flames makes even the Chicago River look like a cauldron.
Like the Great Fire of London in 1666, the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Great Chicago Fire reminds us that big, swaggering cities can still be fragile.
But that same night, about 250 miles north of Chicago, more than 1,200 people died in and around Peshtigo, Wis. It was the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history. Survivors said the flames blew like hurricanes, jumping across Green Bay to light swaths of forest on the opposite shore. A million and a half acres burned.
Chicago's fire came to be seen as a catastrophe that also ignited the invention of steel skyscrapers, raised up on the the city's ashes. It has overshadowed the Peshtigo fire. And for years, the two were seen as separate, almost coincidental disasters.
Many of those houses and sidewalks that burned in Chicago had been built with timbers grown around Peshtigo, in forests conveniently owned by William Ogden, Chicago's first mayor. He owned the sawmill too.
Chicago's fire was long blamed — falsely — on an Irish-immigrant family's cow kicking over a lantern. Some people thought the Peshtigo fire started when pieces of a comet landed in the forest, which has never been proven.
What we understand better today was that the Midwest was historically dry in the summer of 1871. When a low-pressure front with cooler temperatures rolled in, it stirred up winds, which can fan sparks into wildfires. The fires themselves churn up more winds. Several parts of nearby Michigan also burned during the same few days; at least 500 people were killed there.
150 years later, all of those fires on an autumn night in 1871 might help us see even more clearly how rising global temperatures and severe droughts, from Australia to Algeria to California, have made forests more tinder-dry, fragile, and flammable, and people more vulnerable to the climate changes we've helped create.
veryGood! (13)
Related
- Walmart Planned to Remove Oven Before 19-Year-Old Employee's Death
- Barbie’s Simu Liu Shares He's Facing Health Scares
- Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song's Sons Make First Public Appearance at Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony
- Somali maritime police intensify patrols as fears grow of resurgence of piracy in the Gulf of Aden
- Video shows Starlink satellite that resembled fireball breaking up over the Southwest: Watch
- Macaulay Culkin Tears Up Over Suite Home Life With Brenda Song and Their 2 Sons
- Meg Ryan defends her and Dennis Quaid's son, Jack Quaid, from 'nepo baby' criticism
- Bombs are falling on Gaza again. Who are the hostages still remaining in the besieged strip?
- What that 'Disclaimer' twist says about the misogyny in all of us
- Alec Baldwin did not have to pay to resolve $25M lawsuit filed by slain Marine's family
Ranking
- Amazon Best Books of 2024 revealed: Top 10 span genres but all 'make you feel deeply'
- Barbie’s Simu Liu Shares He's Facing Health Scares
- The Essentials: Dove Cameron gets vulnerable on 'Alchemical.' Here are her writing musts
- The director of Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev, is also put in charge of the Bolshoi
- Candidates line up for special elections to replace Virginia senators recently elected to US House
- Tony Award winner Audra McDonald announced as Rose Parade grand marshal
- What is January's birthstone? Get to know the the winter month's dazzling gem.
- Goalie goal! Pittsburgh Penguins' Tristan Jarry scores clincher against Lightning
Recommendation
-
Former Disney Star Skai Jackson Is Pregnant, Expecting First Baby With Her Boyfriend
-
A bus driver ate gummies containing THC, then passed out on highway. He’s now on probation
-
'Santa! I know him!' How to watch 'Elf' this holiday: TV listings, streaming and more
-
Ya Filthy Animals Will Love Macaulay Culkin and Catherine O’Hara’s Home Alone Reunion
-
Timothée Chalamet Details How He Transformed Into Bob Dylan for Movie
-
Court orders Texas to move floating buoy barrier that drew backlash from Mexico
-
Canadian mining company starts arbitration in case of closed copper mine in Panama
-
Mississippi sheriff changes policies after violent abuse. Victims say it’s to escape accountability