Dear Chicago Area Fire Departments Webmaster,

I’m hoping you can point me in the right direction.

I’m trying to research a house fire the consumed my mother’s home some time during a winter between 1949 and 1952.  She lived in the vicinity of 103rd and Vincennes at the time.  I know of no one alive today in her family that remembers anything of significance other than these facts.

The 1940 Census shows my mother and her family living at (I believe) 1256 W 103rd, which is right in that vicinity.  I cannot say for sure if that was the same address they were living at during the time of the fire.  One of my cousins claims that her mother (my mother’s older sister) maintained that no other structure was ever rebuilt on the site of where their home once stood, but today there IS a building at that address – so either the address was wrong, the addresses have changed, or my aunt was mistaken.

I’m hoping you may be able to tell me if you have any records that could indicate any emergency responses to house fires in that vicinity during that time frame.  If so, to know the date and actual address would be a wonderful help.  If such records are not available, then any advice you could give as to how i could investigate further would be very much welcome as well.

I’ve tried researching this on-line myself, but, as I’m sure you can imagine, most of my searches are complicated by the countless links to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871!

Thank you for all you do and all your hard work.

And thank you in advance for your time.

Sincerely,
David Johns

Tags: David Johns, searching for records of a house fire in Chicago