The novel "The Great Fire" is about the great fire that happened in Chicago. The huge fire started in the O'Learys' barnyard and lasted for thirty hours. Daniel "Pegleg" Sullivan was the first to notice the fire and ran to save the cows in the barn and to tell the O'Learys that their property was on fire. William Lee, a neighbor of the O'Learys, hurried to the drugstore to turn in a fire alarm, but Bruno Goll, the owner of the drugstore, didn't allow him because all the fire trucks had left. Lee went back to his house to get his baby and wife out. Goll claimed that he turned in the alarm after Lee left the drugstore, but no alarm was recorded at the central alarm office.