Chicago Fire of 1874

The Chicago Fire of 1874 was a conflagration in Chicago, Illinois, that took place on July 14, 1874. Reports of the extent of the damage vary somewhat, but sources generally agree that the fire burned forty-seven acres just south of the Loop, destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people. The affected neighborhood had been home to Chicago's community of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland, as well as to a significant population of middle-class African-American families; both ethnic groups were displaced in the aftermath of the fire to other neighborhoods on the city's West and South Sides.

The fire insurance industry's National Board of Underwriters responded to the fire by demanding widespread changes in Chicago's fire prevention and firefighting efforts, and ultimately encouraged fire insurers to cancel all coverage of buildings in the city in October. Many insurers did halt their activities in Chicago, and only returned to issuing policies in the city after the municipal government adopted many of the suggested reforms.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, there were some attempts to give the event a nickname to correspond with the much larger "Great Chicago Fire" of 1871. On July 17, three days after the fire, the Chicago Tribune suggested calling "the recent event 'The Little Chicago Fire,' to distinguish it from 'The Big Chicago Fire' that took place three years ago." In a later memoir, a fire insurance executive from Chicago claimed that the event was "known as the 'little big fire'." These nicknames never took permanent hold, however, and more recent publications refer to the event simply as "the fire of 1874" or "the second Chicago fire".

The 1871 fire spurred new fireproof regulations that prohibited wooden buildings to be constructed in the area bordered by 22nd Street to the south, the Chicago River to the north, Halsted Street to the west and Lake Michigan to the east. Wooden buildings already existing within those boundaries were grandfathered in and temporary wooden structures could be erected until replaced by permanent structures. City regulations mandated that those "temporary" buildings must come down within a year, but many remained.

July 14 was a hot day in the city, with a temperature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather had been dry for weeks, with only one day recording more than a trace of rain since early June. It was these circumstances, along with a "strong prairie wind" blowing from the southwest, that made the 1874 fire similar to the 1871 fire.

...
Wikipedia