Beginning of Essay
The summer of 1871 had been an unusually dry one in Chicago. Between July and October, only 5 inches of rain fell. In addition to twenty-seven fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke out in a planning mill on the West Sid ....

Middle of Essay
.... the neighborhood woke up, including the sleeping O'learys. The "America" hose cart was the first to reach the scene. They were soon joined by the "Little Giant" engine company. A neighbor ran to a drug store to turn on an alarm but the alarm failed to work. The court house watchman had given wrong directions but later tried to correct his mistake, but the alarm operator was eating dinner so she refused to correct the mistake. The fire engines went about 1 mile south of where the fire was. By the time the problem was resolved ,a number of hose carts and fire engines were fighting to keep this fire under control, but the wind had spread bits o ....