Great Chicago Fire of the lumber to rebuild Chicago. As a result, the area was so heavily deforested that the land deteriorated into barren sand dunes that buried the town, and the town had to be abandoned. Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the
Port Huron Fire of 1871 erupted in Illinois, and the Peshtigo Fire burned a large tract in Wisconsin, including the city of Peshtigo. Windsor, Ontario met a similar fate four days later. Much of the area burned by the Port Huron Fire was swept by another deadly conflagration 10 years later, under similar conditions. Port Huron Fire of 1871 The Port Huron Fire of Sunday October 8, 1871 (one of a series of fires known collectively as the Great Fire of 1871 or the Great Michigan Fire) burned a number of cities including White Rock and Port Huron, and much of the countryside in the