# Captain Michael C. Hickey (police)
# Testimony before the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, session of Tuesday 28 Nov. 1871 (day 5), as reported in the Chicago Tribune of 1871-11-29, page 4
# Source: Library of Congress, Chronicling America (lccn sn82014064): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82014064/1871-11-29/ed-1/?sp=4 ; OCR text https://tile.loc.gov/text-services/word-coordinates-service?segment=/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_clark_ver03/data/sn82014064/no_reel/1871112901/0004.xml&format=alto_xml&full_text=1
# Page-OCR lines 838-853; uncorrected OCR; written 2026-09-14T06:28:05Z.
# STATUS: NEWSPAPER REPORT (reported speech with some direct quotation) -- not the stenographic transcript. Bales: Inquiry vol. [2], pp. 150-81.

CAPTAIN MICHAEL UICKET.
Ho did not attribute tbo conflagration to tbo
drunkenness ot tbo firemen, and boiteved that
only Divine Providence could have stopped It
when it reached Monroe street Tbougb bo be
lieved tbe gas in tbo works near tbo Armory did
not pass through water.be could testify that
something coming from tbo Gas Works was
wont to go into tbo cells of tbo
Armory through tbo sewers, which smelt
most abominably of gas, a nuisance which bo
bad complained of for eight years. Wltb regard to
preventing tbe spread of tbe fire in its earlier
stages, he did not believe It practicable, and tbe
combustible material on both sides of tbe river
was about equal.