1871 Peshtigo Fire Killed Up to 2,500

On Oct. 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire swept northeast Wisconsin and remains the deadliest U.S. wildfire, killing an estimated 1,200 to as many as 2,500 people and consuming roughly 1.2 million to several million acres. Fueled by a summer drought, routine slash-and-burn logging and railroad clearing, and extreme winds from a cold front that merged small fires into a firestorm, the blaze destroyed Peshtigo—leaving only one or two buildings standing—and about 16 other communities. Eyewitnesses described tornado-like fire behavior, flames up to 2,000°F and wind gusts over 100 mph that caused people to burst into flame, and many victims who sought refuge in rivers drowned, were boiled, or died of hypothermia. The fire raged for days and was extinguished only after the winds died and heavy rains arrived, but its scale was largely overshadowed in national headlines by the Great Chicago Fire burning the same night. Because many records were destroyed, estimates of deaths, acreage and property loss vary and have been revised in modern terms. The disaster's legacy is preserved locally at the Peshtigo Fire Museum and Fire Cemetery, though it remains little known outside Wisconsin.