Urban Studies: The Great Chicago Fire Project

Name:_________________________ Date:________________Per:_________

Urban Studies: The Great Chicago Fire Project

Directions:

A. In each of the boxes record the thesis from your peer’s posters that the details support.

B. If the thesis needs to be changed to match the details, then change the thesis to something better.

1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire

THESIS:

Details

On April 18, 1906 a magnitude 7.9 out of 10.0 earthquake hit San Francisco.

The center of the earthquake happened about two miles offshore.

According to the passage San Francisco is located on the San Andreas Fault line.

The earthquake was felt as far south as Los Angeles and as far north as the state of Oregon.

The earthquake has been compared to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

THESIS:

Details

According to the passage the fire caused more damage than the earthquake.

The firefighters began to use dynamite to create fire barriers so that the fire would not spread.

50% of the buildings were destroyed by dynamite to stop the fires. According to the passage this caused fires to burn for four days and nights.

THESIS:

Details

According to the paragraph the insurance companies would not have paid out any money for earthquake damages.

The passage states the most of the destruction of the city was blamed on fires.

Some property owners set fires to their own property.

According to Capt. Wildman people started their own homes on fire.

Due to citizens lighting their own homes on fire the destruction of the city was greater than it should have been.

THESIS'>THESIS:

Details

Property loss due to the fire has been estimated being more than $400 million.

According to a librarian the San Francisco fire killed more than 3,000 people.

According to the paragraph the earthquake was to blame for the mass destruction.

The Peshtigo Fire

THESIS:

Details

The Peshtigo fire caused the most deaths by fire in U.S. History.

The Peshtigo fire took place on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire.

The Peshtigo fire killed as many as 1,500 people.

The Peshtigo fire killed more people than the Great Chicago Fire on October 8, 1871.

THESIS: (What would be a better thesis? Do they know?)

Details

1,875 square miles of forest were destroyed.

The size of the destruction is relative to the size of New Hampshire.

Fourteen communities were destroyed by the fire.

More than 350 bodies were buried in a mass grave.

THESIS:

Statement

The fire was so intense that it jumped over parts of Green Bay and burned portions of the Door County peninsula.

The firestorm created a tornado of fire that threw railroad cars into the air.

Many survivors of the fire jumped into the Peshtigo River to save themselves.

Most people who jumped in the water died of hypothermia.

THESIS:

Statement

Due to the lands likeness to the German countryside the military tested fires near Peshtigo.

At the edge of town there were no people so it was safe to burn the forest for testing.

The military wanted to recreate the Peshtigo firestorm so that they could make a fire like it in Germany during World War II.

The British and the American military used the firestorm from Peshtigo to burn parts of Dresden and Tokyo.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

THESIS:

Details

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was the deadliest industrial disaster in New York City history.

146 garment workers died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling to their deaths.

The managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits to keep the women working.

Many workers tried to jump from the windows to escape the fire.

THESIS: (Was it?)

Details

All of the employees worked on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the building.

The factory produced women’s blouses known as shirtwaists and employed about 500 workers.

The immigrant woman had to work nine-hour days.

The workers had to work every Saturday for seven hours.

THESIS:

Details

On March 25, 1911 a scrap bin under a cutters table was lit on fire.

The Fire Marshal said it was a lit cigarette the caused the fire to start.

The workers were not allowed to smoke but many did.

Many people believed that arsons were the cause of the fire, but no one wanted to tell who did it.

THESIS:

Details

The fire alarms did not work in the building.

The doors to the exits were locked. The man with the keys escaped before opening the exits.

The elevators were used to escape.

The workers began to jump from the building to escape.