Great Lakes Fire

The fabled Great Chicago Fire took place on October 8th, 1871. A lesser-known fact about the Chicago fire was that it took place at the same time as four other major fires around Lake Michigan. The largest of these fires was not the great Chicago fire, but one that took place in Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

This fire began with a cold front that blew in from the west. The cold, dry, low-blowing winds were enough to escalate some smaller, separate fires that were already burning to clear forest for farms and a railroad, and whip them into a catastrophe. By the time the fire stopped, 1,875 square miles (1.2 million acres) had been burnt. Estimates of the death toll of the Peshtigo fire reach 2,500, with more conservative estimates sitting around 1,200. The margin of error is so great because of the extent of the centralized damage. Hardly anyone was left alive to identify any bodies.

The extent of the blaze's strength was massive. More than just a conflagration, which is a fire that burns a lot of property or land like in Chicago, the fire in Peshtigo became a firestorm. A firestorm occurs when the updrafts of hot air are stacked so much (because of the fire's tremendous size) that the fire forms a self-sustaining and turbulent region of air around itself. The wind shear caused by the turbulence then creates small tornadoes on the fire's periphery, with winds strong enough to damage houses.

Because of the devastation recorded following the Peshtigo fire, it is believed that the firestorm was strong to produce a mesocyclone. Mesocyclones are the vortexes of air more commonly seen in the convective storms that breed full-sized tornadoes.

It is therefore believed that Peshtigo was leveled by a fire big enough to create tornadoes made of fire. To reiterate: fire tornadoes. Witnesses reported that they saw one throwing rail cars and houses into the air. Most of those that escaped the blaze managed to hide in the nearby river or wells.

It remains the deadliest fire in recorded American History.