By Tim Cronin
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — It was 24 degrees in Chicago at 4 a.m. Dec. 22, 1910, the first full day of winter.In the unlit basement of a packing house in the Union Stock Yards, that coal-black cold was being replaced by the glow of sparking wires, and then the first flames of a fire fed by a range of items from rags to raw meat.
Within little more than a hour, that fire would grow to engulf warehouse No. 7 of the Morris & Co. plant. Then, in a few horrendous seconds, it would turn the nearly windowless brick building at 44th Street and Loomis Avenue from just another meat-packing operation into the graveyard of 24 men, 21 of them Chicago firemen.
Until the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, no single disaster in the history of the United States claimed the lives of more firefighters.
Bill Cattorini, a lieutenant with Chicago Fire Department Engine 49, had just returned to the firehouse from fighting a fire at 43rd and Shoop one day in 1998, and was told by his battalion chief that it was near the spot where the 21 had died.
“I thought, ‘There should be a plaque,’” Cattorini recalled. “There’s nothing. I just couldn’t believe it. This was a disaster people didn’t want to remember.”
He approached fellow firefighter Bill Cosgrove for help. They began to raise funds, scout out a location, and find an artist who would carry out their vision of a proper memorial for not only those lost in the 1910 disaster, but all Chicago firefighters killed in the line of duty, a number that totals over 500. They raised $170,000, with 70 percent coming from Chicago firefighters.
On December 22, 2004, 94 years after the disaster, the monument, including artist Tom Scarff’s bronze sculpture, was dedicated in the small park at Exchange and Peoria streets, directly west of the iconic Stock Yards arch. It was 4 below zero. Since then, the annual commemoration takes place Oct. 8, the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.
Both Cosgrove and Cattorini are now retired. Cosgrove, a private fire investigator who lives in Tinley Park, is the author of a book, “Chicago’s Forgotten Tragedy,” the culmination of five years of research that brings the horrible day back to life.
Most of the firemen were buried following private funerals in a matter of days, some of them on Christmas Day. Early in 1911, a public memorial service was held, commemorating the loss of the 21.
Not until Cattorini and Cosgrove spearheaded the memorial effort did the city want a permanent marker for fallen firefighters. It stands as a silent reminder of a horrible day a hundred years ago today.
Stockyards Fire Deaths
Chicago Firemen
William J. Burroughs, 47, assistant chief
Herman G. Brandenburg, 41, lieutenant
Patrick E. Collins, 47, captain
Thomas J. Costello
Nicholas Crane
Nicholas D. Doyle
Dennis M. Doyle, captain, father of Nicholas Doyle
Edward J. Danis, 46, lieutenant
George C. Enthof, 31
James Fitzgerald, 33 , lieutenant
James Horan, 51, chief
Alexander Lannon
Michael F. McInerney, 32
Albert J. Moriarty, 34
Charles Moore, 29
George W. Murawski
Peter J. Powers, 34
Edward E. Schonsett, 27
William G. Sturm
Frank W. Walter
William F. Weber
Others
Andrew Dzurman, fireman, Morris & Co.
Steven Leen, 19, yard clerk, Chicago Junction Railroad
Patrick Reach, 23, fireman, Morris & Co.
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