The Great Peshtigo Fire
The Great Peshtigo Fire gives the reader an overview of events that occurred to the author, Reverend Peter Pernin. Pernin does a great job illustrating the events that occurred before, during, and after the great fire. This is considered a lost story because the great Chicago fire occurred on the same date. I am very glad that I was able to read this book because I was able to learn more about an event that happened very close to my hometown, Seymour.
Pernin begins by describing the surrounding area as a dense forest that consists of hardy trees that were used to build all of the structures in the Peshtigo. There was a prolonged drought in the area leaving behind dried leaves and debris. This causes a huge hazard because at the time there were many railroads that would have sparks spreading from the tracks, and also the rural agriculture used the slash and burning technique which is helpful until the wind picks up and burns everything down. All of these factors along with very high winds, that Pernin described the winds as comparable to a hurricane, allowed the fire to grow and take down everything in the path.
Prior to the actual large fire that occurred on October 8th, Pernin talks about going on a hunt with a twelve year old boy. As the sun starts to go down they find out that they are lost. While the sun is going down they see fires approaching and encompassing them. They ended up getting lucky because the twelve year old’s family goes out looking for them. They had to use a tree limb to smother the fire to allow them to get out of the forest. A couple of days later, he is walking and finds a road that has a fire and is smoking on both sides of it. He decides to lead his horse through it, and is lucky to make it through. He has two near death experiences before the big fire even starts.
Pernin goes on to describe all the mitigation that he did before the fire had reached his property. He was able to keep a clear mind throughout the process which most people did not seem to do. He was able to let his horse run free, because he figured that his horse had a better chance of surviving on the run. He was also able to pack two trunks of his possession and dig a hole six feet deep and covered it with sand in attempt to save them. He then loaded up a wagon of possessions to take along with him. Not only was he leaving behind his home, but he was in the area building a new church that was also in the line of destruction.
As Pernin leaves his house it is in flames. As he is running, he has to take many breaks because the smoke fills his lungs making it very hard to breathe. He sees a lot of people panicking, and trying to save as many of their possessions as possible by digging holes. He also comes across his horse on the road that is just standing still. He called for his horse, but he believed that it was in shock. The horse did not move so he had to move on from it. He seemed to be very distraught by this because he talked about his horse a lot in the book. When he finally makes it to the water he sees that the beach is lined with people. He finds it hard to find a spot to put his wagon, but is able to in the end. The bridge that connects to the peninsula is packed and looks like it is going to break. As Pernin moves closer to the water so is the fire. He finally pushes in two people on both of his sides. They seem upset at first that he did that, but then realizes that it is the best thing to do, and everyone else on the shore followed their lead.
The people in the area were in the cold water for 5.5 hours. While they were in the water they had to continually splash water on their heads or they would have started on fire. That is a very long time to be in cold water and exhausted many people. When the fires dead down the people were relived to get out of the water but only had the soaked clothes that they had on because everything else had burned. They had nowhere to go because the large industrial buildings had all burned down along with every house. All of the possessions that were buried were melted and destroyed, and very few animals were able to survive. All prior mitigation factors were not helpful.
The next few days were devastating because all the telephone lines were down so no government help came until the following week. There was no food or warm beverages to warm them up. They had one tent that only women and children were allowed into. Pernin became blind because of the high heat that he went into, and even with that he was not allowed to stay in the tent. He travelled to Marinette where his other church was, and he found out that it had also burned down. Although buildings in Marinette did burn down, it did not have the death toll that the Peshtigo area had. But it did not have the resources that Pernin needed. He wanted to get his moral up and spread the word of God, but was unable to so he returned back to Peshtigo where he helped with finding bodies in the water. This made his very exhausted, but he was finally able to visit a friend, Mr. Garon, that gave him comfort to allow him to get the rest he needed. Finally, a week after the event they were able to send a message to the governor of the state to ask for help. To their dismay he was out of state helping with the mitigation of the Chicago fire, but his wife was able to help and did as much as possible. She sent two train boxcar to Peshtigo that was suppose to go to Chicago that was filled with; money, clothing, bedding, and supplies.
The total death count of this event is around 1,200 people. The toll is a guess because there were numerous people that were stuck in homes and it is hard to tell between people and ruble because the high temperatures of the fire burned everything to the ground. Some people burned others dead of exhaustion, cold of the night, and starvation. I think that having a better warning system could have really helped out this population because the people seemed to only move to the shore when the fire was in their back yards. They had many small fires that occurred prior to this event so it was probably hard for them to decide when to move and when not too. Also, having a better communication system could have helped them a lot because the people needed help right away and they did not receive any help that whole week. Today we think it is a long time to not get help in 72 hours, so I could not image not receiving help for a week. The people thought the world had ended and were giving up hope, and I think that if they would have received help earlier they would have been able to save many more people.
