# Chicago Tribune, 1871-12-12, page 4 -- The Board of Police and Fire Commissioners' report on the origin and progress of the fire, adopted 11 Dec. 1871, as printed 12 Dec. 1871 (two OCR segments joined; the sub-headline block at lines 927-933 omitted)
# Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America, lccn sn82014064; page URL https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-12-12/ed-1/?sp=4
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# Lines 677-926, 934-982 of the page OCR (uncorrected OCR, column order as delivered by LoC). Fetched 2026-09-14T06:25:57Z.
# STATUS: newspaper report of the testimony, mostly in reported speech with some direct quotation -- NOT the stenographic transcript.

POLICE AND FIRE.
Export of the Commissioners
on the Great Confla
gration.
Conclusions Arrived-at by Messrs.
Brown and Sheridan.
The Eesponsibility for the Calamity
Qaietly Shifted to the Mayor,
Council, and Newspapers.
Commissioner Stelim After tlia
“-Sloucliy Patrolmen.
A regular semi-weekly meeting of the Board of
Police and* Fire Commissioners was held at tbe
Madison Street Station- yesterday afternoon*
President Brown in the chair. There were pres
ent—Commissioners Sheridan and Rchm. The
following io the report of the board on the origin
and progress of the great fire. It was submitted
and placed on file:
Tho Board of Police, as required bylaw,
investigated the origin of the fire of October 8
and 9. We have heard the sworn testimony of
fifty-one witnesses, and had tho same taken down
by a stenographer, and subsequently transcribed.
As written out it makes 900 pages of fools
cap paper- As a large part of tho tes
timony was published In tho daily papers
as it was taken from day to day, and, as Unorig
inal is on file for reference, we deem it unneces
sary to recapitulate the evidence to any grout ex
tent, hut proceed to give- the result of our inves
tigation, briefly, and place it upon records
Tlio board And that tbo flro originatedla a two
story barn in-rear of No. 137 DeKoven street, tbc
premises being owned by Patrick Leary. The fire
was first discovered by a drayman by the name
of Daniel Sullivan, who saw it while sitting on
tbo sidewalk on the south side of DoXoven street,
and nearly opposite Leary's premises.
Ho fixes the time at not more
than twenty to twenty-five minutes past
9 o’clock, when ho first noticed the flames coming
out of the barn. There is no proof that any per
soushadbccnin tbo bam after nightfall that
evening. Whether it originated from a spark
blown from a chimney on that windy night, or
was set on flro by human agency, wo are unable
to determine. Mr. Leary, tbo owner, and all Ins
family prove to have been in bod and asleep at
tbc time. There was a small party in the front
part of Leary’s house, which was occupied by Mr.
McLaughlin and wife. But wo failed to find any
evidence that anybody from McLaughlin’s part o£
tbo bouse went near the barn that night.
THE FIRST INFORMATION RECEIVED BY THE FIRE
came from the alarm struck in the fire alarm D f.
flee at 9;30. The alarm sounded Box No. Jf a t
the corner of Canalport avenue and Foisted
street, a point in the directlonfof fl ro>
but a mile beyond it. There as no
signal given from any box to the Central office,
but tbo box was given by Mathias, Schaffer, from
the Court House cupola, he bein v the night watch
man on duty at the lime, and having sighted the
Are. There was no signal given from anybodj*.
until after the Fire Department had arrived and
turned in the second and third alarms. If any
person set the fire, either by accident or design,
HO was careful not to give any alarm. The near
est engine uoUSOWas six blocks from the lire;
the next nearest one was nine blocks away. The
nearest hose bouse was located eleven blocks
from the Arc, and, hose house, the watch
man had seen uio nre before the 'alarm Vras
given from the Court House, and the company
were on their way to the flro before the box Was
struck,
In consequence ia
the hose company (tne .America) went eleven
blocks and attached their hose to *_ a plug and
got water on tho Are before any onginO aid. al
though two engines were located considerably
nearer the lire. It would require five minutes for
tho nearest engine to go to the fire, a distance of
six blocks. From three to fivo minutes more
would be required in which to unreel and lay out
the hose,make connection with tho plug and go to
work. Intelligent citizens who lived near the
place of tho fire testify that it was from ten to fif
teen minutes from tho time they first saw tho tiro
before any engines came upon tho ground. It is
proved that tho engines repaired to tho Are, after
getting the alarm, with the usual celerity. When
they arrived there from three to five buildings
were fiercely burning. Tho flro must then have
been burning from ten to fifteen minutes; and,
with the wind then blowing strongly from tho
southwest, and carrying the lire from building to
building in a neighborhood composed wholly of
dry wooden buildings, with wood shavings piled
in evorv barn and under every house,the Are had
got under too great headway for the engines
called oat by the first alarm to bo able to sub
due it.
Fire Marshal Williams and Third Assistant
Marshal Benner arrived upon the ground soon
after the engines, and at once saw that the tiro
could not be stopped without more engines, and
Marshal Williams immediately ordered the
second, and soon afterward the third,alarm to be
turned in; but these only called the distant en
gines, and many valuable minutes elapsed before
they could reach the lire and got to work, and,
before this could bo accomplished, the fitroug
wind had scattered the tire into the many build
ings, all os dr}* as tinder, and spread it over so
large an area that the whole de
paitmont, although working with their
utmost energy, were unable to cut it off or pre
vent the wind, which soon became a gale, from
carrying burning shingles and brands over their
heads, and setting on fire buildings far away
from the main tire. After it got into the high
church at the corner of Clinton and Mather
streets, and thence to the match factory and
Batcham’s planing mills, and lumber, it was be
yond the control of the Fire Department.
About this time it crossed the river between
Van Buren and Adams streets, by means of flying
brands, and set lire to Powell’s rooting establish
ment adjoining the Gus Works. Before this the
watchman in the Court House cupula had twice
extinguished lire, which had caught from brands
carried by the wind into tbo Court House balcony
from the West Side, a distance of a mile. At 11
o'clock the Tteepcr of the crih of the lake tunnel—
two miles from the shore and throe miles from
the lire—found the sky fall of sparks and burning
brands; and from 11:30 till morning, he testified,
he worked with all Ids might to prevent the
wooden roof of the crib from burning up and de
stroying himself and his wife.
THE TERRIFIC PROGRESS OF THE FIRE.
From Powell's rooting ostabllshment|Jtbe pro
gress of tbe lire was rapid and tcrntic, sweeping
everything in its course. Tho engines had all
been working on the West Side, and they could
notrcclup 600 feet of hose each, and cross tho
river, ami get to work soon enough to prevent it
spreading,B literally on tho wings of the wind.
Blowing up buildings in the face of tho wind was
tried, but without any heuetit. The Court House
and tho Water Works, though a mile apart, were
burning at the same time. Gunpowder was used
in blowing up buildings with good effect, the next
day, in cutting off tho lire at tho extreme south
cud of it, and preventing it backing any further.
AFTER THE WATER WORKS 11UBNED,
the firemen could do little good with thoir en
gines, except on the banka of the river. They
had lost 7,600 feet of their hose and one steam tiro
engine. Two more engines had been in the re
pair shops, and were partially destroyed; so that
alter 11 o'clock on Sunday night there wore but
fourteen engines in service, and, after daybreak,
one-half of our hose remained. This would not
admit of an engine conveying water very far
from the river.
THE FIREMEN AND THEIR OFFICERS
were sober, and did all that men could do. They
worked heroically to save the property of others,
when their own houses wore uuming and their
families lleclng from the llamcs. A largo part of
the department had worked on Saturday night,
and Sunday till 3 o’clock p. in.—eighteen hours’
steady work—and they were nearly exhausted
when this fire commenced; but they responded
to the call with alacrity, and worked with all
their remaining energy.
WHAT THE COMMISSIONERS ftET.IBVE.
Wo believe that, had the buildings mi the TV est
Side, "where the Are commenced, beC# buut of
brick or stone, "withsafe roofing (tho bindings
need not have been fire-proof), the lire could i£w*o
been stopped‘without doing great damage, and
certainly would not have crossed the river. After
it did cross, the wooden cornices, woodeu signs of
largo size, the and the tar
and felt roofs, which were on most of
the best buildings, caused their speedy
an d aided greatly in spreading
tbe‘conflagration. The single sot of pumping
works, upon -which the salvation of the city de
™£;'V k xsese roofed with wood, had not ap
pended, c jj could he raised to the
pJionce flre vras one of the earliest
T° cn N t -n in the North Division,
buildings to bu- toi-d you so.”
have, year by year, in an-
The Board of Pohcn. a nd Common Council,
nual reports to tbe Mayo* -eat defects of the
endeavored to point out thog... built up.
manner in which our city was o>.. -of having
Wc advised and entreated tbe necessity fore
much greater lire limits established i*-
such an immense amount of combustibles w»*.
piled around the heart of the city*. TVo
reported Mansard and tar roofs to bo unsafe;
that the water supply was insufficient; that our
flre hydrants wero twice too far apart; that we
ought to have fire department cisterns at the in
tersections of the streets, so that wo should al
ways have water at fires; that wo ought to have
floatiug fire engines, with powerful pumps in the
river to enable the firemen to wet down 1,500 feet
on cither side of the river or its branches; that
wooden cornices were an abomina
tion that tho Holley system
of pumping the water and sending ft through tho
pipes with a pressure of forty pounds on ordinary
occasions, with power to increase it to 100 pounds
1 n case of a fire, would give us four sets of pump
ing works in different parts of the city, and not
leave us to the mercy of chance or accident with
a single set. We sfiowed that tho four seta of
Holley works could be built for less than one
year’s interest on the cost of the present ‘W ater
Works, and, when built, would admit of the dis
pensing with every engine in the Fire Depart
ment where the water was In theatreet—allowing
us to get rid of most of tho horses and all the en
gines of the department and to reduce tho num
ber of men one-half; saving two-thirds of the ox
uense of the Fire Department and making it as
efficient as it would he with one hundred steam
flre engines. None of these things was noticed
bv the Mayor, the Common Council, or the news
papers. No heed heiug paid to our suggestions,
so fur as any improvement of our plan ot ex
tinguishing fires was concerned, the only
thing we could do was to ask foi
an increase of the engine companies
in order that we might he prepared us_ well as
possible to contend with the great tiros to-wuicu
wo were and are still liable. Our engines have
always been too few in number and too far apart.
The Fire Department should bo ivory much en
larged, or the system of putting out tires by
steam engines should be abandoned. If the citi
zens do not believe this now, they will after the

er portion of tbe wooden city wnich now re
mu ns.
IF,” TOD KNOW.
It we bad bad floating steam pumps of largo
capacity in tbe Sontb Branch, tbe lire would not,
pn bably, have crossed to the South Side. If we
had bad cisterns in tbe street, wo could bavo boon
saved allot tbo North Division, north of Chicago
avenue and west of Clark street, and all of tbe
southeast part now inclndcd in tbe burnt dis
trict of tbe South Division.
COMPENSATING FIREMEN.
Evidence was given of money having been paid
by citizens to some of our firemen, but we can
find no evidence that any of them worked during
the fire with any idea of receiving any pay or
consideration for their labor upon any
Property. The money paid was merely
a testimonial of respect for the
firemen, and an acknowledgment, in a substan
tial form, of services rendered by the firemen,
many of whom had perilled tbeir lives to save
the property of citizens, and lost their own homes
while do’ag so. No money was paid them until
weeks after the lire, and its receipt was a sur
prise to tbe firemen who got it.
THE VISITING FIREMEN,
The Fire Department received ail the aid from
firemen of nearly every city, far and near, that
could be rendered. They came with their appa
ratus, and worked with a will, and placed us all
uuderuload‘of obligations which we can never
repay.
THE LOSS.
The area burned over by the fire is about 2,150
acres, divided among the three divisions as fol
lows t About 160 acres in the West Division, near
ly coo acres :n» the' South Division*, and upward
of 1,400 acres In the North Division. The total
loss of property burned is estimated at about
$200,000,000. Tbe number of building* burned is
bstween 17,000 and 18,000. The number of lives
lostat thc fire is supposed to have been about
200, although the Coroner has, oe-yet, found but
117 bodies in the ruins.
The report was signed by Commissioners Brown
and Sheridan. Mr. Gund, tho remaining member
of the old board, will sign tho document in a day
or two.