The Deadliest Wildfire In U.S. History Occurred The Same Day As The Great Chicago Fire
Public DomainAn illustration from an 1871 issue of Harper’s Weekly of people fleeing the Peshtigo Fire.
The deadliest wildfire in American history is also the deadliest known fire in world history. Often overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began the same day, the Peshtigo Fire burned in northeastern Wisconsin and the southeastern portion of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.
On Oct. 8, 1871, railway workers were clearing land for railroad tracks and started a brush fire that rapidly spread out of control. However, it was a dry fall, and the residents of Wisconsin had grown accustomed to small fires breaking out. So, when the people of Peshtigo went to bed that night, they didn’t think anything of the smell of smoke in the air.
Then, around 10 p.m., as reported by the Peshtigo Times in 1921, a “low rumbling noise” was heard, “like the distant approach of a train.” People looked out of their windows to see flames leaping from the tops of trees in a nearby forest. Coals began to fall from the sky “as thickly as the snows of winter.” There was no time to react.
The Peshtigo Times continued: “In less time than it takes to write it, the wind reached the force of a tornado, the buildings nearest the woods were on fire, and the very air seemed an atmosphere of flames.”
Royalbroil/Wikimedia CommonsTwo pieces of wood that survived the Peshtigo Fire.
The flaming whirlwind picked up railroad cars and houses, sand turned into glass from the blazing heat, and even the church bell melted. Residents jumped into the river, some of them drowning or coming down with hypothermia from the frigid waters. One man reportedly slit his children’s throats as the fire approached to give them a quicker death.
By dawn, just two buildings were left standing in Peshtigo. It’s unknown exactly how many people died, because many corpses were incinerated by the inferno, which may have reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Peshtigo Times reported, “A heap of undistinguishable calcined bones and charred flesh in the ruins of the building, giving no clues to sex or number, was all that remained.”
Estimates of the death toll range from 1,500 to 2,500 people, making the Peshtigo Fire the deadliest wildfire in history.
After reading about the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history, look through these 15 terrifying images of fire tornadoes. Then, learn about the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
