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The Saturday Night Fire began some time after 10 p.m. in the boiler room of Lull &
Holmes Planing mill, at 209 South Canal Street, about ten blocks north of the O'Leary
home, in an area popularly known to insurance brokers for its combustibility as the "Red
Flash." Before this fire was finally put out, it was well into Sunday afternoon, and four
square blocks and close to a million dollars in property had gone up in smoke. More
important, the Saturday Night Fire left Chicago's already undermanned and underequipped
force critically shorthanded and overtired, with some of their trucks, engine, and hose
badly damaged.
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The Eve of Disaster 