# Peshtigo Fire October 8, 1871 The most deadliest USA firestorm. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 8, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091 "2009-10-08T18:51:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/1 "2009-10-08T18:51:17Z")
On October 8, 1871 the Peshtigo Fire took place killing the most people in a natural fire as has ever happened in the USA. Many fires burned that day, but Peshtigo was the deadliest due to to the dry lumber debris all about and drought conditions of that time. Did disintegrating space debris start all these fires around the Great Lakes, did the fire storm somehow start fires hundreds of miles apart, or were there just a lot of small fires started because of the drought and human activity that all came together that day? Regardless it was a horrible fate for the people that lived and died in the ordeals of that day. [The Peshtigo Fire website](http://www.peshtigofire.info/) [Here is a Wisconsin Historical Archive search for Peshtigo Fire encase you wish to read some firsthand accounts.](http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/searchresultsg.asp?cx=000704660129363388593%3Aujkx5xiebno&q=peshtigo+fire&sa=Search&cof=FORID%3A9#988) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/2 "2009-10-08T19:04:21Z")
that time was a big drought. fires have many causes. California has a fire season. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/3 "2009-10-08T19:17:05Z")
I’m not expecting somebody to know how the fires started. No definitive answer exists at this time. I’m just bringing up a major event on it’s anniversary to be remembered , pondered and reflected on. I expect to hook the interest of people that never heard of this today. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/4 "2009-10-08T19:37:56Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Did disintegrating space debris start all these fires around the Great Lakes Space debris is not likely. [The Bad Astronomer points out that small meteorites are not typically hot to the touch, nor do they start fires.](http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/meteoric.html) Here’s a [picture of the car that was hit by a meteorite in New York in 1992](http://www.nyrockman.com/pages/peekskill-tucson.htm)- note that the car doesn’t look burned. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/5 "2009-10-08T20:07:29Z")
Last month I read a book about a fire (the “Hinckley Firestorm”) that destroyed several towns in the Minnesota woods in 1894. The author wrote about large (very large) “balls of fire” that were formed and that floated in the air. Something similar may have happened with the Peshtigo fire. One thing that struck me about Hinckley was how people refused to believe they were in danger. They had a “Nah, that can’t happen here” attitude, even when people fleeing on a train told them that a huge fire was headed their way. ---
**Author:** ![fuzzypickles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9d8465/32.png) [@fuzzypickles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzypickles)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/6 "2009-10-08T20:37:00Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > One thing that struck me about Hinckley was how people refused to believe they were in danger. They had a “Nah, that can’t happen here” attitude, even when people fleeing on a train told them that a huge fire was headed their way. For what it’s worth, Southern Californians tend to have the same attitude. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/7 "2009-10-08T20:44:24Z")
The Peshtigo Fire seems to get lost in the shuffle, historically, since it happened on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. In terms of loss of life, Peshtigo “wins” by a considerable margin. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/8 "2009-10-08T20:44:51Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Did disintegrating space debris start all these fires around the Great Lakes, did the fire storm somehow start fires hundreds of miles apart, or were there just a lot of small fires started because of the drought and human activity that all came together that day? It was a brutally dry summer all across the Great Lakes region that year, so that what would ordinarily be small-scale fires would rage out of control. The Peshtigo firestorm had been burning in the surrounding forests for many days, it just happened to rage through Peshtigo on the 8th, which was the same day that the Chicago fire broke out. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/9 "2009-10-08T21:11:48Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > that time was a big drought. fires have many causes. > > California has a fire season. Everywhere in the U.S. has a fire season. It just happens at different times. The Peshtigo Fire was also the largest U.S. wildland fire by acreage- 3,780,000! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/10 "2009-10-08T22:37:04Z")
> [@St.Urho](#): > > Everywhere in the U.S. has a fire season. It just happens at different times. Here in the rural Midwest, we have dry windy days when we don’t set fire to the brush pile, but I wouldn’t call that a fire season, not like what they have in California. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/11 "2009-10-08T23:00:40Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > [The Peshtigo Fire website](http://www.peshtigofire.info/) I have a lot of respect for a fire that has its own logo. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/12 "2009-10-08T23:14:40Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Here in the rural Midwest, we have dry windy days when we don’t set fire to the brush pile, but I wouldn’t call that a fire season, not like what they have in California. The west in general has a longer fire season. The Upper Midwest, where I used to work, has a fire season from whenever the snow melts until about June. The fuel types tend not to be explosive like chapparral or pinon/juniper, although jackpine burns very, very well. There’s also nowhere near the urban interface problem that there is in the West. ---
**Author:** ![Ispolkom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@Ispolkom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ispolkom)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/13 "2009-10-09T00:30:08Z")
I think that both the Pestigo fire and the Hinckley fire also were fueled by the vast amounts of waste wood left behind by contemporary logging practices. Let that dry for a few years, and get a dry, windy day… I’ll have to reread “Firestorm at Peshtigo.” I note that its index has entries for wells, dead in wells, dried up by fire ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peshtigo-fire-october-8-1871-the-most-deadliest-usa-firestorm/513091/14 "2009-10-09T03:05:50Z")
> [@Ispolkom](#): > > I’ll have to reread “Firestorm at Peshtigo.” I note that its index has entries for > > wells, dead in > wells, dried up by fire Taking cover in wells (or basements or underground storm shelters) didn’t help people fleeing the Hinckley fire either.