1855, April 30th, A Saloon Fire at Washington and Market Streets, Chicago was Destroyed.

At half-past one o'clock on Monday morning, a fire broke out in a saloon occupied by Andrew H. Young at the corner of Washington and Market Streets, being part of a house owned by Michael Casey, and kept as a boarding house by Mr. Young. 

This illustration is a visual aid.

The fire spread with great rapidity, and the building, with most of its contents, was destroyed. Most of the boarders escaped in their night clothes, and few of them saved anything more than they could lay their hands on in an instant. We have been informed that the house was partly insured, but we understand that Mr. Young's loss in furniture, etc., will not be less than $1,000 ($35,000 today), with no insurance.

The usual promptitude in sounding a fire alarm characterized this fire. Had there been a lookout on the Court House steeple, the fire would have been seen when it first broke out. An alarm could have been struck directing the firemen to proceed westward from the Court House, which would, in a very few minutes, have assembled the entire force of the department and saved at least half the destruction that followed. As it was, the fire rages for nearly half an hour before the city alarm bell sounded, and then it gave forth such an "uncertain sound" that if the blaze of the conflagration had not lit up the sky, the firemen would not have known in what direction to run.

We have spoken so often of the imperative necessity of immediate attention to the subject of fire alarms that we are tired of it. We presume that nothing will be done until some of our most valuable blocks of buildings are laid in ruins, and then we shall have a fire alarm.

ADDITIONAL READING: The Chicago Lager Beer Riot of 1855.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.