Personal Experiences During the Chicago Fire, 1871

A first-person memoir recounts the author's experience of the great Chicago fire, describing his life in a boarding house and work in the business district, the city's predominantly wooden construction, and the dry conditions that turned small blazes into a conflagration. He narrates the sequence of fires, eyewitness scenes of spreading flames, the gas works danger, civilian panic, efforts to save belongings, widespread destruction, mass homelessness and casualties, and reflections on how urban materials, street construction, and preparedness influenced the disaster and its immediate aftermath.