Fire

Where there's smoke, there's fire. And there's a lot of red and black going on in The Devil in the White City. Here are a few of the instances where fire rears its flaming head:

• It helps the plaster in park structures to speed dry
• Burnham forms an official exposition fire department
• He has hundreds of fire hydrants and alarm boxes installed in buildings
• He even builds a boat, the Fire Queen, to navigate the park's shallow canals
• Smoking is banned on the fairgrounds for fear of fire
• There's a minor fire in the Cold Storage Building
• There's a huge fire in the Cold Storage Building that kills twelve firemen
• Holmes tries to burn his hotel to collect fire insurance
• Some of Holmes' victims are found in fireplaces or in his homemade kiln
• Holmes' hotel burns to the ground (likely arson)
• The White City is set ablaze after the fair is over (it's intentional)
• A fire destroys the district attorney's office and leaves only a photograph of Holmes unscathed (yeah, spooky)

So: What's up with all the fire?

Well for one thing, fire has the ability to create and to destroy. It helps create the White City's buildings, but it also destroys them. According to Mayor Harrison on American Cities Day:

"If we cannot preserve [the fair] for another year I would be in favor of putting a torch to it and burning it down and let it go up into the bright sky to eternal heaven." (3.21.8)

So in a sense, going up in flames preserves the White City forever and ever. It doesn't have time to crumble and make people sad. It disappears while it's still in its prime.

Fire also equates power. Being able to control it, in Holmes' case, gives him authority over his victims. However, for Burnham, fire makes him powerless. Despite taking measures to safeguard against fire, he's unable to predict the horrible fate of the Cold Storage Building and the firemen who tried to put out the flames.

And we can't forget about fire as being synonymous with hell. After all, doesn't the devil himself sleep on a bed made of fire? The frequent instances of fire, and especially the fact that Holmes' photograph is the only thing to survive the fiery fate of the district attorney's office, help to underline the truly sinister nature of this story.