deadliest fire in us history

deadliest fire in us history

Analyzing the Deadliest Fire in US History: Causes, Impacts, and Lessons Learned

1. Introduction to the Deadliest Fire in US History

In 1871, there were approximately 38 million people in the US. So, while the US was not as populated, the 1,200 wildfire fatalities from the Peshtigo fire corresponds to between 5% and 20% of Wisconsin’s then population, possibly hundreds of people on the east side of Lake Michigan’s western shore. The casualties were 10 times those of the largest US wildfires from 1950 to 2020, and the estimated loss of 3.2–5.7 billion USD is comparable to the severe fire years of 2003 and 2017. Nonetheless, the deadliest fire in the US today is widely believed to have occurred west of Lake Michigan on the same day, during the conflagration of the city of Chicago. With few newspaper and other communication sources verifying the Peshtigo fire, and national events such as the binational selection of a Great Chicago Fire firefighter concept on October 9, 1871, as the cornerstone for the Lloyd’s of London fire insurance company headquarters, information about the Peshtigo fire is quite limited, difficult to find, and not covered by national newspapers. As a result of these issues, the Peshtigo fire is nearly forgotten. The Peshtigo fire has never been analyzed as a peer-reviewed study; in contrast, many have analyzed the Chicago fire.

On October 8, 1871, the deadliest fire in US history killed some 1,200 people, destroyed around 17,500 structures, and incinerated a 2,000-km2 area of Wisconsin and Michigan. A massive wildfire event or series of lightning-ignited events created a firestorm that swept through the town of Peshtigo. The resulting fire front, which was 15–20 km wide and 100 km long, moved eastward accompanied by hurricane-like winds, producing unimaginably massive flames. At the center of the firestorm (Peshtigo), which some called the “Gate to Hell,” the fire created a massive draft. Large trees were uprooted, and people confessed to one another as they believed they were in a spiritual judgment period before burning to death. Rancher and writer Cyrus Townshend Lloyd stated that this one day, October 8, 1871, had more horror than has ever been compressed into any one day in the annals of human history. Yet, in the same week, a similar firestorm, now popularly associated with the town of Chicago, killed more people.

2. Causes and Contributing Factors

The Peshtigo fire validates the general causes leading to the Peshtigo Fire. In this case, it is a combination of a multi-year drought, high temperatures, strong winds, and a major low-pressure system in the area that led to a massive number of forest fires and human ignitions. There is nothing unusual about such weather conditions in that region of the Upper Midwest. This has been proven throughout the centuries. We have seen several localized instances of such occurrences in the last few decades. The same weather conditions must have occurred on the adjacent same days around Lake Michigan (Lake Michigan 19 Sep. 1629; Chicago 8 Oct. 1871…) and other Great Lake regions, and it is apparent that several major fires must have occurred throughout those regions with similar results. They will probably surface in the future as more is known about the history of this geographical area.

The Peshtigo fire was the deadliest fire in United States history, killing more than 1100 people in Northeastern Wisconsin. The fire burned a massive area of 2,400 square miles. Its cause has been widely attributed to natural causes, particularly a combination of a multi-year drought, high temperatures, strong winds, and a major low-pressure system in the area, the same weather conditions that led to the Great Chicago Fire on the adjacent same day (October 8, 1871). This study appears to be one of the first endeavors to analyze the Peshtigo Fire using a fire behavior model and advanced geographic information system (GIS) capabilities. The objective of this research is to present an accurate spatial and temporal history of the Peshtigo Fire by reconstructing a fine spatial and temporal map, depicting the events and behavior of the fire. This study concludes by reviewing current urban sprawl and wildland fire development in Northeastern Wisconsin.

3. Impacts and Aftermath

The fire was unprecedented in scale and in its effects on the natural and human environments. If the factors that contributed to the disaster were better understood, future large catastrophic fires and their dearly bought and often long-lived debouches on both societies and ecosystems might be largely avoided. By examining underlying risk factors, potential losses from fires of this scale may be avoided. Understanding the past and the social, political, and policy elements that contributed to the Peshtigo Fire also should inform decision makers about future risks. To inform the present, greater insight as to which area settings are both substantially more fire prone, as well as in what current use of these settings creates, continues, and/or amplifies underlying risk is critical if society is to minimize future losses of lives, livelihood, and landscape due to fire. We all could learn a great deal about managing large fires from the catastrophic scale impacts of the Peshtigo Fire.

The listing of impacts of the Peshtigo Fire can be subdivided into biophysical, social and economic, and institutional and infrastructure sectors. At the physical level, the fire affected both land and soils, with comments provided on animal and insect populations. Human health was also impacted. In the historical context, opportunities to study the histories of subsequent recovery and patterns of land use are of interest. Impacts on social structures (community, education, and the church) are of note. Economic impacts can be broken into two components. With respect to raw commodities, the impact can be identified as major losses due to destruction or degradation of goods. The second component is the leveraging of natural resource loss or degradation changes into economic, social, political, and other losses.

4. Response and Lessons Learned

4.2. Longer-term Lessons The 1894 Hinckley Fire was a wake-up call for those in the vicinity and beyond, as it led to the first efforts to establish and establish firefighting services. These long-term effects, including new approaches to fighting fire, are examined in the last section. The 1894 Hinckley fire was a tragic case of humans not knowing what they were getting into. People moving west brought their assumptions about the world and their area with them. They had virtually no way of knowing how dry the early vegetation was and zero knowledge of the potential energy undone, primitive fire weather observation (similar to using a match and lighting various things on fire to observe fire behavior), and long-term observation of how and why the weather changed. They had no idea about landscape DDT nestled 100 years in the future or even the possibility of an anomaly like smoke.

4.1. Short-term Response Many residents in Hinckley treated the fire as something that came and went, not expecting it to become so huge. Thus, it was a shock to people when they realized the extent of the fire. There were many heroic actions taken during the fire. Adams tells of a “local firefighter, Dan Lamson, rescued an entire trainload of people using an Indian fire safety practice that included setting one heading back toward the fire area and leaving two cars to pick up survivors on a parallel track. He just made it up and forced the dispatcher to believe him and switch the track to his train”. Several residents more experienced with fire than many of the others, such as out-of-state veteran loggers, drew upon what fire they had seen in the past to try to save others.