It's that time again! Fire Prevention Trivia

[Bob Harper]

Last yr. we discussed why the week of Oct. 9th is national Fire Prevention Week. Now, the follow up:
What major event occured about the same time not too far from there but resulted in the most damage of that type in our history?

[Rick Hurst]

Great Chicago Fire

rick

[Bob Harper]

Naw, you jumped too fast Rick. The Great Chicago Fire is what Fire Prevention Week commemorates. There were two worse fires at the same time. What were they?

[Jerry Peck]

The Great Chicago Fire in 1871, The Peshtigo Fire in 1871 and the wild prairie fires of 1871.

Good guess?

[Gunnar Alquist]

Boston.

[Vern Heiler]

Johnnstown earthen dam failure and resultant flood.

[Ted Menelly]

Houston

[Gunnar Alquist]

Johnnstown earthen dam failure and resultant flood.

Ummm... Don't floods put out fires? ;)

[Rick Hurst]

As JP already mentioned,

October 8, 1871 - Starting on the same day as the Chicago fire and overshadowed by its legend, a fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin spreads across six counties in one day, and kills 1,200 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest fire in United States history.

[Bob Harper]

Rick and Jerry and on it. Peshtigo was the worst fire loss in our history. Even beyond Peshtigo, there were scattered fire storms throughout much of Michigan that same week. 10 yrs. later, the Great Thumb Fires of Michigan killed another 1,200 but charred about 1.2 million acres. This was the first reported incident where Clara Barton and her new Red Cross responded.

New evidence suggests Mrs. O'Leary's cow was asleep as she was when the fire ignited. It did ignite in or near her barn, which is now the site of the Chicago Fire Dept's Training Center.

[Jim Zborowski]

I read somewhere several years ago where Mrs. O'Leary's cow was posthumously exhonerated of any wrong doing and was identified as another innocent victim of the fire.

[Brian Thomas]

Not too many people know of the peshtigo fire. I had never heard of it until I passed thru there about 15 years ago.

Most of us have heard of the great chicago fire though. Mrs o leary's cow is infamous in chicago, maybe even moreso that al capone :D

That must have been an extremely dry year for the upper midwest considering all those fires happened in the same area of the country at the same time.

[Rick Hurst]

I have heard that the Chicago fire was actually started by a man at the O'Leary farm who had a wooden leg and that he knocked a latern over onto hay stacked on a wooden floor. The poor cow had no way to defend itself. :D

rick