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.

Creator: Chicago Tribune
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-38026)