John F. Hogan and Alex A. Burkholder discuss their new book Fire Strikes the Chicago Stock Yards. Wade into the endless smoke of Chicago’s Union Stock Yards, the site of nearly 300 extra-alarm fires before its closure in 1971, including some of the most disastrous conflagrations of a city famous for fire. In 1910, 21 firemen and three civilians were killed in a blaze at a beef warehouse — the largest death toll for an organized fire department in the nation prior to 9/11.

Recorded live Thursday, May 2, 2013 at the Harold Washington Library Center.