The Great Fire — Vocabulary
Jim Murphy
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If the fire established itself on the tall steeple, the wind would spread firebrands over an even larger area.p.43.9alternate pages6 more

Idle gossip had hardened into established fact.p.127.8alternate pages6 more

Bits of burning debris fell from the bridge and set boats below on fire.†p.72.7alternate pages12 more

As for Goll, he claimed later at the official inquiry into the fire that he had waited for Lee to leave and then turned in the alarm.†p.27.1alternate pages7 more

Tens of thousands of people scrambled for their lives, became trapped and confused; most figured out how to escape, but scores of people perished in dead-end streets.†p.76.9alternate pages2 more

Other factors may have contributed to her survival.†p.82.4alternate pages1 more

Even the absence of an alarm being turned in at Goll's drugstore and the subsequent incorrect signals sent from the Courthouse were discussed.†p.129.4alternate pages1 more

The city boasted having 59,500 buildings, many of them — such as the Courthouse and the Tribune Building — large and ornately decorated.†p.18.5alternate pages1 more

In all only 120 bodies would be recovered, though officials estimated that nearly 300 people perished in the flames.†p.112.3alternate pages1 more

Chamberlin's distaste for the area and its inhabitants was shared by a great many people living in the city's wealthier sections and would go a long way toward fixing the blame for the Great Fire.†p.31.8alternate pages3 more

Crosby's Opera House burns while pedestrians scamper to safety.†p.44.1alternate pages3 more

One witness reported seeing a group of well-dressed people from a German saloon singing one tune after another while, a few tombstones away, a small congregation of Methodists held a prayer meeting.†p.95.7alternate pages1 more

Knox was talking specifically about New York City, but his concluding thoughts on this process could be applied to all large urban centers.†p.138.7alternate pages2 more

The heat and dry air had left twelve-year-old Claire Innes tired and listless all day.†p.34.9alternate pages1 more

While this system sounds very cumbersome to us, back in 1871 it was considered quite speedy and efficient.†p.29.4alternate pages1 more

On the day the fire started, over 55 miles of pine-block streets and 600 miles of wooden sidewalks bound the 23,000 acres of the city in a highly combustible knot.†p.19.8alternate pages1 more

They demanded a culprit — and Catherine O'Leary was the handiest target in sight.†p.124.6alternate pages1 more

Everybody seemed cool and collected ...and it is sufficient refutation of the absurd stories which have been circulating of outrages, lynchings, etc., to state the simple fact that my wife and her sister ...were a long time walking about the streets in the vicinity of the fire ...without ever a feeling of insecurity, or receiving an uncivil word from anyone.†p.134.2alternate pages

But the feeling of the general public — bolstered by the press's focus on the "poverty-stricken" Catherine O'Leary and the "drunken" firefighters wasn't sympathetic at all.†p.137.1alternate pages

If some firemen did act strangely (moved lethargically, were clumsy, or had a glazed look in their eyes) on the night of the Great Fire, the best explanation is that they were completely exhausted from overwork and a lack of sleep.†p.130.9alternate pages