Research Essay: The Great Fire Of 1871

Do you know what wildfires really are? If you don’t know what wildfires really are, don’t worry, I’ll tell you; wildfires are a type of natural disaster that are basically a fire, but are more threatening and dangerous. They occur and spread briskly over bushes, trees, or forests (“Wildfires”). One of those lethal wildfires, which scientists believe was the deadliest wildfire that ever occurred in the United States, was The Great Fire of Peshtigo of 1871 (Deana C. Hipke). This perilous fire, according to Deana C. Hipke, was ignited in Wisconsin and then raged through parts of other Midwest states. It traveled about 2,400 miles in total, took the lives of many people and animals, and destroyed everything that crossed its path (Deana C. Hipke). Now, let’s take a closer look of what happened on that day of 1871.
The Great Fire of Peshtigo was a wildfire that started on the evening of October 8, 1871, on the same day as the Great Fire of Chicago, approximately only 250 miles away. There could’ve been many ways that the fire could’ve been caused, but the 2 major reasons that the fire could have been caused by were; the

The first destruction, was that 1500-2400 people in total had died, 350 of them found in forests beyond of being identified. (Deana C. Hipke). The Great Fire of Peshtigo also caused many towns, ecosystems, and environments to be completely destroyed (Massive Fire Burns in Wisconsin). The 3.7 million acres of land that was destroyed by the fire was home to about 2 billion trees, was all consumed by the flames. This fire also killed many species of flora and fauna in the forests, and the areas that were affected by the fire. Due to the severe damage that was inflicted on the land which held buildings, properties, homes, forests, trees and cropland that was worth about 10-11 million dollars, recovery took almost 2-3 years for the communities that were most affected (Deana C.