Historians love to debate the impact of the Great Fire on Chicago’s development.
Yet, just 20 years after the fire, the city’s population had grown from 300,000 to 1 million people. The center of Chicago and the heart of the business district were wiped out. An estimated 300 people died and 100,000 were left homeless by the three-day inferno that erased 2,100 acres of the city. While the cause of the blaze is unknown, its origin was at 558 West DeKoven Street-an address that today is home to a Chicago Fire Department training facility. On the night of October 8, 1871, fire spread across Chicago. How did the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 impact Chicago and its architecture? October inferno