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Emily Wist, Brandon Roost, and Brent Koehn are part of the “barge crew” at Redmoon. As welders, they are in charge of assembling the 40-foot steel barges on which the Victorian houses will sit. The barges have four cells within them, pumped with air to prevent the seals from breaking. In the rare case one does, water will only fill one cell (a quarter of the barge), and it will remain afloat.
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Frank Maugeri, Redmoon’s producing artistic director, oversees the daily work of all aspects of the festival, making sure each element – from the barges to the steamships to the kayaks – are constructed properly and on time.
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Erik Newman and Matt Binns test the smoke stack on a soon-to-be steamship. In charge of building the main steamship (the one that caused the fire of 1871), Newman and Binns have torn apart and completely reconstructed a 1973 pontoon boat. Mostly constructed of plywood and aluminum, the steamship remains lightweight. Complete with smokestacks, a boiler room, and paddle wheels, a simple pontoon is transformed into a steamship from the 1800s.
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A group of high school students from Chicago Public Schools demonstrate one of the cranes that will lower the fire cauldrons into the Chicago River. Students involved in the Engineering Wonder program through After School Matters spent time at Redmoon this past summer learning new skills to spark their interest in potential jobs. Some of the students, like Robert Tichy (pictured left, in red), decided to come back to Redmoon even after Engineering Wonders had ended to complete a summer internship.
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Students and parents head out to the Cermak Bridge to complete their final drop test of the fire cauldrons before the spectacle on Oct. 4.
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Setting up the cranes along the river is a quick process, though tedious. Everything needs to be secured and in place. Each crane lowers one flaming cauldron onto the river. There will be five cranes on each of the three bridges, for a total of 15 fire cauldrons hovering about the river.
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Pieces of 2 x 2 lumber are attached to the metal framework. Then, cedar veneer is bolted onto the lumber pieces, creating the look of a house and wooden siding. Chicken wire holds together all of the wooden pieces as well, to ensure no pieces flake off into the audience or the river.
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Three smaller steamboats will float on the river with the larger steamship. What were once just simple fishing boats are now transformed into steamboats using rigid foam insulation and homemade smokestacks.
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The finished cauldrons, each one handmade, are hanging from the ceiling and out of the way of workers until the festival arrives.
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Loaded into the river a week early, the team works hard to set up the houses to make sure they stay put until the spectacle. About a day or two before the event, Redmoon will move the houses into place in the middle of the river. A process called spudding will be used, taking four hinged 40-foot long metal beams on each floating house, and shooting them down into the soil of the river. By doing this on all four corners, the house cannot shift. Once burned, each house will reveal a structure, each one signifying the revival of the city of Chicago after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Photo: Ratko Radojcic