In a short time the lumber district was a great bonfire, the flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air. On and on swept the fire along the river front. Then the horror-stricken watchers saw the flames cross to the South Side. All had thought that the fire would be checked at the river, but the wind carried pieces of burning wood and paper to the roofs beyond.
The business section was burning! The firemen worked desperately, but in vain. Hundreds of Chicago's finest buildings—stores, offices, banks, and hotels—were swallowed up by the flames. The city had become a roaring furnace, and the terrified people rushed madly for safety.
AFTER THE FIRE
Once more the fire crossed the river, this time to the North Side, with its beautiful residence districts. Here too wind and flame swept all before them till Lincoln Park was reached, where at last the fire was checked in its northward course; there was nothing more to burn. It had raged for two nights and a day, laying waste a strip of land almost four miles long and one mile wide.
Courtesy of Central Trust Company of Illinois, Chicago
HOME OF JOHN KINZIE
Tuesday morning saw seventeen thousand buildings destroyed and one hundred thousand people homeless. The best part of Chicago lay in ruins. What wonder that men everywhere thought the stricken city could not rise again!
At the time this terrible disaster happened, Chicago had been a city for a little less than thirty-five years.