The real reason has to do with "history." Before you hear the story of October 8th, one thing must be made perfectly clear. History has a bad memory! Sometimes we remember things that may not have been the first, or the biggest or even the most important event.
For example, many people assume that the Titanic was the biggest ship to ever sink. In fact, several other ships bigger than the Titanic have sank, with a much larger loss of life. We remember the Titanic but have forgotten the ships that were even bigger.
What does this have to do with fire prevention week? That, as they say, is the rest of the story.
Let us go back to the year 1871, to the city of Chicago. In those days, Chicago was a fast growing young town with a lot of hope for the future.
The fast growth, however, caused a lot of problems. Houses were being built so close together that in some cases it was hard to walk between them. The only building material that was not in short supply was wood. This meant that most of the buildings were made of wood, including roofs, walls and even the sidewalks on the street in front of the houses. Some people even built their chimneys out of wood.
In the summer and fall of that year there was a long period of drought, the wood, the grass and the trees were extremely dry. Obviously, when something flammable becomes dry, it is more likely to catch fire, and when it begins to burn, it often burns faster and hotter.
As you can see, the city of Chicago was ready for something bad to happen. The Fire Chief of Chicago repeatedly warned about the danger, but few people listened.
Then on the night of October 8th, a fire began. This was not the only fire that started in the city that week, but it quickly became the most deadly.
Some people think that the fire started when a cow kicked over a lantern. There is no evidence that this is true. No one knows for sure how the fire began, but we know that it started at about 8:30 in the evening. We also know that it started in or near a barn belonging to the O'Leary family.
The fire grew. First, one bulding, then several buildings, then a whole city block. Just to make things worse, the Fire Department was sent to the wrong address. Remember, this was before anyone used the 911 number on his or her phones. In fact, it was before anyone had telephones!
Chicago burned all that night and into the next day as well. There are stories of heroism and cowardice-of people who died when they could have survived and of those who survived when it seemed they were doomed to die.
Before the fires were over, over 250 people had lost their lives. Three and a half square miles of the heart of the city were cleared of 17,450 houses, stores, churchs, and businesses.
Newspapers all over the world told the story in bold headlines. It was the number one news event of that year.
Today most people remember the "Great Chicago Fire," but never forget, history has a bad memory! Many of these same people do not know that the fire in Chicago was not the biggest fire that happened on that day, October 8, 1871.
Just a few hundred miles north of Chicago, in the state of Wisconsin, there was a smaller town called Peshtigo. Like Chicago, Peshtigo was a town with only a few thousand people; the main industries in this area were logging and farming.
On October 8, 1871, a crew of workers building a railroad decided to burn some piles of brush and trees. This was what some people would call "stinking thinking" because of the same drought that affected Chicago.
