FRISKY COW

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 303, 7 December 1931, Page 11

FRISKY COW

CAUSED £80,000,000 DAMAGE. BIG FIRE IN CHICAGO. X What is the worst thing a cow has ever done? There is no douot that it was to cause the terrible fire of Chicago, which broke out sixty years ago, and and was started by a cow getting frisky and kicking over a paraffin lamp. We think of the Great Fire of Loudon in Charles ll.’s reign as a dreadful disaster, and so it was. In that fire 437. acres, were swept clear by the flames, and 13,200 houses, together with many churches and public buildings, were destroyed. In the great fire of Chicago, however, 2124 acres were cleared, containing seventy-three miles of streets, with 17,450 buildings. One hundred thousand people were rendered homeless, 250 hves were lost and the damage amounted to £60,000,000. And all this destruction was started by a cow. On the fatal evening—a Sunday, according to one account —an old lady, Mrs O’Leary, took a lamp in in her hand. and went to look at her cow, a regular nightly habit. She set down the lamp and went into the house to get some salt for the cow. While she was away the cow must have kicked over the lamp. An explosion followed, and in an instant the cowshed was a mass of flames. Another story says that someone went to milk Mrs O’Leary’s cow, and while he was trying to do so the cow kicked over the lamp. Whichever may be the correct account, there is no doubt that the cow started the fire. A terrific west wind was blowing, and soon the whole street was ablaze. The flames leapt from building to building with the speed of an express train, and soon Chicago realised that it had to cope with the most terrific fire it had ever known. Soon the flames crossed the Chicago River, which seemed to boil, and both sides of the waterway were ablaze. A whirling board which was alight fell on the gasworks, and the place caught fire, with the result that the light of the city was soon cut off, except for the glare of the flames.