(Part one)
With the current extended drought,
unseasonable high temperatures, a steady stream of thunderstorms, and our current
fire situation, thoughts all over the west are turning to major forest fires,
and the devastation of a century ago.
In the summer of 1910, a series of forest fires swept over Idaho and
Montana, culminating on August 20–21 in what is known as the "Big Blowup." Today many of us think of that fire, look at
our current situation, and we wonder.
On Saturday afternoon, August 20, 1910, all
hell broke lose in the northwest.
Hurricane-force winds, unlike anything seen since, roared across the
rolling Palouse of eastern Washington and into Idaho and Montana forests so dry
they crackled underfoot. In a matter of
hours, fires became firestorms, and trees by the millions became exploding
torches. Millions more, sucked from the ground, roots and all, became flying
fireballs. It was dark by four in the afternoon, save for wind-powered
fireballs that rolled from ridge top to ridge top at seventy miles an hour.
They leaped canyons a half-mile wide in one fluid motion. Entire mountainsides
ignited in an instant. It was like
nothing anyone had ever seen.
Reportedly, by noon on the twenty-first, the day had turned dark as far
north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as far south as Denver, and as far east as
Watertown, New York. To the west, the sky was so filled with smoke, ships 500
miles at sea could not navigate by the stars.
There was no stopping or containing the fire; one could only hope to
avoid it. Trains raced to evacuate towns just ahead of the flames. Forester
Edward G. Stahl recalled that flames hundreds of feet high were "fanned by
a tornadic wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to
earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell." In
the same instant that towns and timber alike perished, heroes were made,
legends were born, and history changed forever.
Before it was over, 10,000 men were on fire
lines that stretched from eastern Washington across the Idaho panhandle well
into western Montana. The names of the fires they fought sounded more like the
names of Civil War battlefields than anything else: Big Creek, Setzer Creek,
Stevens Peak, Storm Creek, Bullion Mine, Cedar Ridge and Little North Fork. In
some canyons, you could not tell where one battlefield ended and the next one
began. The fire burned three
million acres and killed enough timber to fill a freight train 2,400 miles long.
Eighty-six people perished, most burned beyond recognition.
Every able-bodied man available fought the
rampaging flames. Most were Idaho loggers, miners from Butte, Montana, and skid
row bums brought in on trains from Spokane. The pay was 25 cents an hour, plus
a bedroll, sourdough pancakes, coffee and canned tomatoes.
On
October 8, 1871 the worst recorded forest fire in North American history swept
through Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, destroying millions of
dollars worth of property and timberland, several communities, and taking
between 1,200 and 2,400 lives. The Peshtigo Fire was a
forest fire that burned in and around Peshtigo, Wisconsin. It was a firestorm that caused the most deaths
by fire in United States history.
Occurring on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire
has been largely forgotten. Yet on that
same day the cities of Holland and Manistee, Michigan burned, and the same fate befell Port Huron at the southern end of Lake Huron as well.
On the day of the Peshtigo
Fire, a cold front brought strong winds that fanned the fires, escalating them
to a massive firestorm ensued. A firestorm is sometimes called nature's
nuclear explosion. We have a wall of
flame, a mile high, five miles wide, and traveling 90 to 100 miles per
hour. Hotter than a crematorium,
the bodies of the dead simply melt and disappear, while even sand is turned
into glass. By the time Peshtigo was over, 1,875
square miles, or 1.2 million acres of forest had been consumed, an area
approximately twice the size of Rhode Island.
Some sources list 1.5 million acres having burned. Twelve communities were
destroyed. An accurate death toll has
never been determined because local records were destroyed in the fire. Between
1,200 and 2,500 people are thought to have lost their lives.
The worst natural disaster
in Minnesota history, the Cloquet Fire of 1918, claimed nearly 500 lives in a
single day. The fire began after sparks from local railroad tracks ignited dry
brush. When the flamed abated, as many as 38 communities had been razed to the
ground, 250,000 acres had been scorched, 52,000 persons had been injured or
displaced and the costs mounted to nearly $75 million.
The summer of 1988 saw the largest
wildfire breakout in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park. By the
time the fire subsided, despite modern firefighting technology, nearly 800,000
acres had been burned over, roughly a third of the entire park. Surprisingly no
lives were lost as a direct result of the flames, even though as many as 25,000
firefighters reportedly battled the conflagration.
Could
it happen again? Most certainly… Wildfire season is definitely here,
and so far 2015 is shaping up to be another spectacular fire year, particularly
in our drought suffering western states.
Unfortunately, major blazes are becoming the rule rather than the
exception, and not necessarily “Only” because of the enviro’s much touted
global warming. It's a trend that comes
quite naturally with our changing climate of course, a massive drought, and nearly a century of
misguided environmentalism and forest planning that only grows worse every
day.
So it could be that the worst
wildfires in U.S. history will be the ones that have yet to happen. That’s scary, considering the damage that
wildfires have done in the past. Perhaps,
with a little luck, proper planning, common sense, and continued effort on the
fire suppression folks, this year will not be a sign of things to come.
To our firefighters holding those oh-so precarious
fire-lines today, I can only say “Thank You… and be safe”.
