The Great Chicago Fire Started Here: Mrs. O'Leary's Block

At 558 W DeKoven Street on the Near West Side, a plaque marks the spot where the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 began. The fire broke out on the evening of October 8, 1871, in or near a barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary. Popular legend blamed a cow that kicked over a lantern. Research in the 1990s by amateur historian Richard Bales pointed instead to a neighbor named Daniel Sullivan, who may have started the fire accidentally. Mrs. O'Leary was cleared by a Chicago City Council resolution in 1997 — 126 years after the fire. The fire, driven by southwest winds, burned for two days and destroyed 17,450 buildings across 3.3 square miles. Approximately 300 people died and 100,000 — roughly a third of the city's population — were left homeless. The O'Leary home itself survived; the barn did not. Reconstruction began almost immediately and with almost reckless speed — much of the burned district was rebuilt within a few years. Today, the Chicago Fire Academy stands on the DeKoven Street site, training Chicago firefighters on the very ground where the fire began. A bronze sculpture called "Pillar of Fire" marks the spot.