Beyond the Flames – Wildfire Often the Most Costly in the U.S.

Our last look into the history of the United States’ most devastating fires brings us to two fires that are, for the large part, mostly unknown to the masses across the country, and rarely mentioned by historians except for those in areas directly affected by the blazes. After taking a look at city fires, industrial fires, school fires, and nightclub fires, our final week of retrospect brings us to the wildfire, one of the most common and often mostly costly of fires in the U.S. each year.
The first of these fires took place in Peshtigo, Wi. on Oct. 8, 1871 – the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. A town of approximately 1,700 residents at the time of the fire, the town was a popular western settlement at a time where U.S. Western expansion was in full swing.
On this particular day, however, a number of small fires that had been burning for some time due to the dry summer that has just passed would be fed by strong winds to form a massive firestorm that would become one of the biggest wildfires in American History.
A conflagration, or combination of winds and fires to create a massive firestorm, devastated the Midwest with a fire one mile high and five miles long, moving at approximately 90 miles per hour. When the fire was finally extinguished due to heavy rains several days later, it had burnt over 1.2 million acres, completely destroying at least 12 communities in Wisconsin, and claiming at least 1,200 lives. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 2,500, although the small town’s population records were destroyed by the fires, so the death toll is unknown.
The fire spread was so quick that entire towns, such as Peshtigo, had no warning for escape, and citizens perished before they had time to react. In Peshtigo alone, some 250 bodies were buried in a massive grave because there were no survivors left to identify the dead. Many citizens who did have the chance to flee took refuge in the waters of the Peshtigo River, hoping that the river would work as a blockade and halt the flames.
The fire was so massive, however, that it simple jumped the river and burnt on both sides, with citizens trapped between the flames. Many perished from smoke inhalation, drowned, or died of hypothermia because of the low water temperatures. The Peshtigo fire remains the deadliest fire of any type in U.S. history, excluding the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
Speculation over the years has led some to believe that the fire may have been started due to some sort of extra-terrestrial source, such as a meteor strike, due to the odd number of large fires in the Midwest that day. In addition to the fires in Peshtigo and Chicago, large fires devastated the areas near Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron in Michigan.
Many have theorized that this number of fires in close proximity to one another on the same day had to have come from a common source. Many historians and scientists, however, believe that the fires were started independently, largely due to the dry summer that preceded the fires.
This particular fire was the source of many military advancements for the United States Army during World War II, as many Army scientists and commanders studied the Great Peshtigo Fire to develop a concept known as the “Peshtigo Paradigm,” which combined the data regarding wind, topography, and ignition at the Peshtigo fires and used them to develop more effective fire-bombing techniques for use in Germany and Japan.
While the Peshtigo fire may have been the greatest loss of life in U.S. history, it was not the fire that has claimed the most land. That distinction goes to the Great Fire of 1910, a forest fire that started in much of the same manner as the Peshtigo fire nearly 40 years prior which eventually burned over three million acres of land in northeast Washington, northeast Idaho, and western Montana.
In early August of 1910, there were over 2,000 same fires burning in the Northwest near the site of the Great Fire, all relatively small and confined to separate areas, but all in close proximity. Due to massive hurricane force winds on Aug. 20, however, the numerous fires combined into two large infernos that eventually joined forced to ravage through woodlands the size of Connecticut. At least seven towns were decimated over the two-day span that the fire raged, until once again heavy rains put an end to the fires. The fire claimed 87 lives, including the lives of 78 firefighters who were battling the blaze.
This fire was one of the first major fires fought by the United States Forest Fire Service, which was at that time known simply as the National Forest Service. The blaze played a large role in the formation of the USFFS as we know it today, determining the procedures that dispatch United States Forest Fire Service firefighters to every forest fire in the role of prevention and extinguishment.
As you can see, the fire service is constantly evolving and adapting to the ever-changing times, and many lessons can be learned from past incidents. Without the lessons learned throughout the past, the fire service would struggle to strive to the future.
Knoll, 19, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknolljr4cmcherald @yahoo.com. He is a student at Rowan University.