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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tall Paul, post: 25284343, member: 114635&quot;]Indeed, the Peshtigo fire was overshadowed by the Chicago fire. At the same time, October 8th, there were fires burning on the east coast of Wisconsin, up the Door Peninsula, on both coasts of Michigan and around the city of Lansing. There had been a long term drought leading to extremely dry conditions and when a low pressure system came through with very high winds many long smoldering fires blew up into major conflagrations. The fire hit Peshtigo at night and most people were asleep. The combined death toll from all the fires in Wisconsin and Michigan was estimated to be 1800. Even today there is no firm estimate of the death toll as establishing a death toll was difficult because many victims were turned to ash and blew away on the winds. When I taught my class about Natural Disasters I spent a day covering Peshtigo and all the other WI and MI fires of October 7-8, 1871. </p><p><br /></p><p>I think of Peshtigo when ever there is a major US wildfire like Maui or the Paradise fire in CA, and the recent fires in Texas let alone the rest of the world.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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