As this is written, reports from Victoria, Australia suggest that one hundred or more people have been killed by a series of fast moving brushfires. Reports are that about 400 fires driven by wind have ripped through rural areas north of Melbourne.

It is a rarity in the modern United States for a wildfire to destroy entire communities. The Oakland Firestorm of 1991 was an exception.

In the past, however, communities were leveled by fire. One of the greatest fires and accompanying loss of lives is often overlooked because of another, smaller fire that happened that same day.

October 8, 1871 was a warm and windy day. It had been a very dry Summer and a dry Fall. The next 24 hours would see an outbreak of fires across the Midwest that would leave thousands dead and entire communities burned to the ground.

The Chicago fire began on October 8. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow probably did not start it, but when it ended 300 Chicago residents would have died.

The size of the city and its place as the urban center of the Midwest meant that the news of the fire would receive massive amounts of attention. Overlooked by many was a story that was far, far worse.

Fires rages in other parts of the Midwest on October 8. Manistee, Saugatuck, and Holland, Michigan were either burned or partially burned by fires. It is the Peshtigo fire, though, that remains the single deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.

Peshtigo, Wisconsin was a small town about 250 miles north of Chicago. Peshtigo was a lumbering town, with a small harbor and mills. The region was forested, and the usual debris of the lumbering trade littered the landscape. Branches, brush and sawdust abounded.

The area had several fires in the days leading up to October 8. They had burned themselves out. The town was saved from serious damage by the townspeople working together to wet down roofs and extinguish embers.

The wind came up from the southwest that evening, and a growing roar could be heard. Embers began to fall on the town. Many people ran to the river, to cross what they saw as a natural barrier. When the wooden bridge caught fire, people began to jump into the river for safety.

The fire crossed the river and did not stop until it burned itself out on the shores of Green Bay. Two buildings were all that remained of Peshtigo, that and the charred remains of 800 residents of that community.

Another eleven communities in the region would also burn, over two thousand square miles of land turned to charcoal. The total death toll for the fire is estimated at between 1,200 and 2,200 people.

Our friends in Australia know too well the feelings that the survivors of the Peshtigo fire experienced. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Victoria as they fight the remaining fires and recover from their losses.