Red hot

Less than a block off North Michigan Avenue (nicknamed the “Magnificent Mile” because of the abundant shopping options) sits Chicago’s oldest working firehouse, Engine Company 98, built in 1904. The city’s history is entwined with fire. The Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, which burned for 2 days, was devastating, killing hundreds and destroying most of the city. Urban legend has it that the fire started when a cow kicked over a lantern in a barn owned by the O’Leary’s. Every Chicagoan knows the words to the song commemorating the event…”One night dark, while we were all in bed, old Mother Leary put a lantern in the shed and when her cow kicked it over, it blinked its eye and said “It’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight….fire, fire, fire.”