Terrifying stories from the largest US wildfires that blazed into the history books
The Smokehouse Creek Fire is one of the largest wildfires in U.S. history, but even larger fires have terrorized parts of the nation.
With rain in the forecast, the risk of wildfires is thankfully dropping across Texas.
At over 1 million acres and still burning, the Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas is the fifth-largest wildfire in United States history. Other behemoth fires that blazed into the history books have scorched twice that much, with the top five totaling 9.5 million acres, about the size of the state of Maryland.
With these historical events come horrifying stories of the fires and the people who faced them head-on.
The Great Fire of 1910 - Idaho and Montana
The largest wildfire on record was likely composed of several large fires that erupted in Idaho and Montana during an extreme drought in the summer of 1910. Coal locomotives were blamed for starting hundreds of fires across the states. On the morning of Aug. 20, "all hell broke loose," according to a USDA report. Hurricane-force winds "unlike anything seen since" combined thousands of smaller fires into one monster inferno that charred millions of acres over the next few days.
The mouth of the tunnel where Ranger Edward Pulaski sheltered his men during the 1910 fire. Photo taken in September 1910. (Forestry History Society)
Entire towns were wiped out, and firenadoes, or fire whirls, were reported. "Trees sucked from the ground, roots and all, became flying blowtorches," the USDA report stated. A total of 86 people died, mostly firefighters on the front line, but one firefighter saved a crew of 38 by hiding in a mineshaft tunnel, a story that would dominate the headlines.
The Great Fire of 1910 led to forest management changes that live on today. Beyond The Great Fire, over 20 million acres were burned in fires in the Northwest quadrant of the country that year.
The Peshtigo Fire - Wisconsin 1871
The Peshtigo Fire, once rumored to have been started by comet fragments, burned 1.2 million acres in Wisconsin and Michigan on Oct. 8, 1871. It occurred the same day as The Great Michigan Fire, detailed below. It started when a cold front with winds "110 mph or stronger" fanned flames from controlled fires into a massive firestorm.
Illustration of People Escaping Fire in Peshtigo in 1871 (Getty Images)
A firenado was reported to have thrown rail cars and houses into the air. The townsfolk took refuge in the local river, but many died of hypothermia.
One survivor recounted, "A thousand discordant deafening noises rose on the air together. The neighing of horses, falling of chimneys, crashing of uprooted trees, roaring and whistling of the wind, crackling of fire as it ran with lightning-like rapidity from house to house -- all sounds were there save that of the human voice. People seemed stricken dumb by terror."
The entire city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, was destroyed, and between 1,200 and 2,500 people were killed. The number was unable to be narrowed down because all the city's records were destroyed and there were few survivors.
Flames from a backfire consume a hillside as firefighters battle the Maria Fire in Santa Paula, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The Great Michigan Fire - Michigan 1871
Over 2.5 million acres in eastern Michigan, from the town of Holland to Port Huron, were charred by a massive wildfire on Oct. 8, 1871. This acreage does not include the Peshtigo fire from the same day, which burned into the other side of the state from Wisconsin.
The Taylor Complex Fire - Alaska 2004
The largest wildfire in modern history measured with modern tools was the Taylor Complex Fire in Alaska, which burned 1,305,592 acres of land in August 2004. That wildfire was part of a season that ended up with 6.6 million acres burned in Alaska caused mainly by an unusual number of lightning strikes in the state.
A word on our methodology: Wildfires before the modern era were likely a collection of fires, as they occurred before modern fire tracking techniques like GPS and drones, which allow the U.S. Forest Service to track individual fires.
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