Peshtigo fire

Slash-and-burn land management was a common way to clear forest for farming and railroad construction. On the day of the Peshtigo fire, an eastward-moving cold front increased the wind speed and several slash-and-burn fires merged. A firestorm ensued. In the words of Gess and Lutz, in a firestorm "superheated flames of at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit ... advance on winds of 110 miles per hour or stronger. The diameter of such a fire ranges from one thousand to ten thousand feet ... When a firestorm erupts in a forest, it is a blowup, nature's nuclear explosion ... " In addition to Peshtigo, 16 other communities were destroyed in the fire. The value of the property and forest that was destroyed in the fire was estimated to be about $5 million US (about $ in dollars). An accurate death toll has never been determined because all local records were destroyed in the fire. Estimates vary from 1,200 to 2,400 deaths. The 1873 Report to the Wisconsin Legislature listed 1,182 names of dead or missing residents. In 1870, the Town of Peshtigo had 1,749 residents. More than 350 bodies were buried in a mass grave, as there was no one left to identify them. The Rev. Peter Pernin, in his eyewitness account, states that the prolonged drought at that time combined with the factor of human carelessness were omens of the horrible disaster. He also notes how the fire seemed to jump across the Peshtigo River using the bridges and upward air drafts and burn both sides of the town. Other survivors reported that the firestorm generated a fire whirl (described as a tornado) that threw rail cars and houses into the air. Many citizens escaped the flames by immersing themselves in the Peshtigo River, wells, or other nearby bodies of water. Some drowned while others succumbed to hypothermia in the frigid river. In one account, a man slit the throats of all his children to spare them from an agonizing death. ==Comet hypothesis==

Speculation since 1883 has suggested that the start of the Peshtigo and Chicago fires on the same day was not coincidental, but that all the major fires in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin that day were caused by impact of fragments from Biela's Comet. This hypothesis was revived in a 1985 book, reviewed in a 1997 documentary, and investigated in a 2004 paper published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Certain behaviors of the Chicago and Peshtigo fires were cited to support the idea of an extraterrestrial cause, such as blue flames (thought to be cometary gases burning) in the basements of houses. In any event, no external source of ignition was needed. There were already numerous small fires burning in the area as part of land-clearing operations and similar activities after a tinder-dry summer. All that was necessary to trigger the firestorm, plus the other large fires in the Midwest, was a strong wind from the weather front which had moved in that evening. ==Legacy and aftermath ==

The wildfire remains the deadliest in the history of the United States. William B. Ogden, a politician and owner of the factories in Peshtigo, returned to rebuild the town. However, progress was slow and many buildings, including the woodenware factory, never reopened. Today, Peshtigo has roughly 3,500 residents. A memorial commemorating the fire was dedicated on October 8, 2012, at the bridge over the Peshtigo River. The Peshtigo Fire Cemetery was entered into the National Register of Historic Places. Twelve years later, the fire erupted and many people flocked to the church for safety. The people prayed the rosary, and hours later rain came, which put out the fire. Some of the very few things that survived the Peshtigo Fire were the convent, school, and chapel and five acres of land that had been consecrated to the Virgin Mary. The only animals that survived were those that were brought to the chapel grounds. Following the fire, people had great faith in the chapel and the Virgin Mary because they believe that she had saved them. In the following years, it was claimed that miracles occurred at the chapel. In one account, a blind girl went to the chapel to pray and came out able to see; however, none of these stories have ever been reliably documented. Tornado Memorial County Park is located on the site of the former community of Williamsonville, a small village in Door County, and is named for the fire whirl which occurred there. Out of 76 residents, only 19 survived, and Williamsonville was never rebuilt. The combination of topography, geography, wind conditions, and ignition sources that led to the fire is known as the "Peshtigo paradigm". The American and British militaries studied the fire during World War II to learn how to recreate firestorms during bombing campaigns against cities in Germany and Japan. ==Depiction in media ==

The Peshtigo Fire is discussed in Season 1, Episode 8, of the television series The Gilded Age when downstairs character Jack is discovered putting flowers on the cenotaph of his mother, who died in the tragedy. ==See also==