Yesterday was a day of walking around Chicago. Weather was cold and finally the rain drove us indoors about 2pm. After dinner went to a Blues Bar called Blue Chicago, excellent music and a great hour or so.

In yhe centre of Chicago a stone water tower stands. Built in the 1830's it was the only structure remaining after the Great Fire of 1871

The fire started at about 21:00 on Sunday, October 8, 1871, in or around a small barn that bordered the alley behind 137 DeKoven Street.[2] The traditional account of the origin of the fire is that it was started by a cow kicking over a lantern in the barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. In 1893, Michael Ahern, the Chicago Republican reporter who wrote the O'Leary account, admitted he had made it up as colorful copy. The barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire, but the official report could not determine the exact cause.

There has been speculation as to whether the cause of the fire was related to other fires that began the same day. See Questions about the fire.

The fire's spread was aided by the city's use of wood as the predominant building material, a drought prior to the fire, and strong winds from the southwest that carried flying embers toward the heart of the city. Most of the structures in Chicago at the time of the fire were made entirely of wood. Most houses and buildings were topped with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs. All the city's sidewalks and many roads were also made of wood. Compounding this problem, Chicago had only received an inch of rain from July 4 to October 9 causing severe drought conditions.

In 1871, the Chicago Fire Department had a force of 185 firefighters with just 17 horse-drawn steam engines to protect the entire city. The initial response by the fire department was quick but due to an error by the watchman, Matthias Schaffer, the fire fighters were sent to the wrong location allowing the fire to grow unchecked. An alarm sent from the area near the fire also failed to register at the courthouse where the fire watchmen were located. Additionally, the firefighters were tired from having fought numerous small fires and one large fire in the week before. These factors combined to turn a small barn fire into a large scale conflagration.

Once the fire had ended, the smoldering remains were still too hot for a survey of the damage to be completed for days. Eventually the city determined that the fire destroyed an area about four miles (6 km) long and averaging 3/4 mile (1 km) wide, encompassing more than 2,000 acres (810 ha). Destroyed were more than 73 miles (117 km) of roads, 120 miles (190 km) of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property—about a third of the city's valuation. Of the 300,000 inhabitants, 100,000 were left homeless.

After the fire, the city recovered 125 bodies. Final estimates of the fatalities ranged from 200-300, considered a small number for such a large fire.