Description
Great Chicago Fires book – Historic blazes that shaped a city. By David Cowan When compared to the ancient cities of the world, Chicago’s history is short, almost embryonic. Many volumes have been written about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but the history of fire in Chicago does not begin or end in October 1871. The author chronicles Chicago’s other great fires, some of them headline makers, others not so famous, all of them valuable in the lessons they brought in the fields of fire safety and engineering, albeit at the expense of hundred of innocent lives. Perhaps it can be said that in this sense the victims claimed by these and other fires, did not die in vain; that their deaths helped make today’s world much less venerable to fire. Softbound. Photos B&W. Pgs. 169
