Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Fire

A Raging Tornado of Fire

Peshtigo was a logging and rail village of about 1,700 people. Its most advanced firefighting apparatus was the Peshtigo Company's single horse-drawn steam pumper, designed for relatively small sawmill fires. Many months of extreme drought and high temperatures, along with slash-and-burn land clearing practices, left dry, flammable deforestation debris along travel and rail routes waiting to be burned in a controlled manner. A large cyclonic low pressure system (cold front) swept in from the west. Temperature differences of about 40 degrees Fahrenheit generated strong and steady winds. The winds fanned the flames of the debris-burning fires, spreading the fires far and wide until the fires all joined into one very large forest fire around Peshtigo.

There was simply nothing available in Peshtigo to fight fires of such a huge magnitude. The village was a very compact fuel source, and as the fire started burning the village structures, the winds stoked the flames much like a blacksmith's furnace. The result was a column of superheated air rising quickly over the town and dragging in cold air at the base, perpetuating the cycle and fanning the flames even more until it became a firestorm. Peshtigo was at the center of a tornado of flame, with 100-mph winds coming from all directions into the fire. At the center of the fire, a vortex of wind sucked the smoke up into the sky, so the air was clear and bright with flame.

The people were essentially trapped in the village, surrounded by wooden buildings and wooden sidewalks, sawdust-strewn streets, and a burning forest all around them. Survivors told of wagons, houses, and rail cars that were swept up into the firestorm. The air well away from the firestorm was estimated to be as hot as 500–700 degrees F, so hot that people's hair and [Page 471]clothing spontaneously combusted and sand turned to glass. People struggled to the open spaces around the Peshtigo River, where a local Catholic priest urged people into the water for protection against the flames and superheated air. Some took refuge in wells, streams, and creeks. They remained in the water for hours, but only some of them survived. Others were burned and even boiled alive in the water.

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