Fall 1871: Chicago is a tinderbox ... in this interactive timeline and map. 1. Before the fire The Sunday morning sun rises on four city blocks destroyed by a fire that had burned through the ...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- On the night of Sunday, Oct. 8, 1871, a fire broke out in or near a barn on what we would now call Chicago's Near West Side. Popular legend that generations of Chicagoans were ...

Mr. Smith is the author of “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City.” When the monumental fire of October 1871 struck Chicago, the city, which had ...