Grain Trade
Threat of Fire on Goose Island
In 1895, the Chicago Fire Department stationed the fireboat Fire Queen (which had originally been stationed at the World's Fair) to the east side of the island, just near North Avenue. In 1900, under pressure from Armour and insurance companies, the Fire Department located Engine Company 90 on Division in the center of the island. This location took advantage of the city water lines that had been run to the residential district just to the south of Division. Armour actually donated the two-story frame building that housed the engine company. John A. Groves, who had grown up on the island and watched the Fire Queen dock, was one of the first men assigned to the company. This 1907 photograph shows six members of the Goose Island Fire House by their horse-drawn fire engine.
See also: Firefighting; Water Supply
1930 Goose Island Elevator Fire
Sixty-five engines and trucks and two fire boats were used to fight a blaze started by spontaneous combustion in a grain elevator on Goose Island in May 1930. Firefighters battled for more than five hours into the night, as an estimated twenty thousand spectators watched. The elevator, built by Philip D. Armour in the 1890s, was owned by the Rosenbaum Grain Corporation.
See also: Firefighting; Water Supply
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