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
Great Gale of 1871 Great Gale of 1871 The Great Gale of 1871 was a severe storm in the North Sea which struck the north east coast of England on Friday 10 February 1871. Shipping near the town of Bridlington was severely affected by the storm, and, in an attempt to rescue seamen, the RNLI lifeboat RNLB "Robert Whitworth" was put out of action and the fishermans lifeboat "Harbinger" upturned with nine locals on board, killing six of them. A memorial obelisk in Bridlington Priory Churchyard commemorates 43 burials there. 28 ships were wrecked on the north east coast, and total fatalities are estimated