(Bloomberg) -- The rash of wildfires that ripped across northern California this month and killed at least 40 people is among the deadliest outbreaks in U.S. history.
The following is a list of major U.S. wildfires with more than 40 fatalities:
- Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Oct. 8, 1871
- Estimated 1,200 to 2,500 dead
- Peshtigo was a sawmill town. Nearly every building was timber-framed and the roads were covered in saw dust. An estimated 2 billion trees fueled the wind-driven flames across the region. Coincidentally, the Peshtigo fire broke out on the eve of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
- Cloquet-Mooselake, Minnesota, Oct. 12, 1918
- 453 dead. Scraps and debris from timber industry's slash cutting fed inferno.
- Hinckley, Minnesota, Sept. 1, 1894
- As many as 440 dead. Drought across Upper Midwest left region vulnerable to fire.
- Thumb Fire, Michigan, Sept. 5, 1881
- 282 dead. Hurricane-fire winds; ash from the blaze obscured the sunlight as far away as the Atlantic seaboard.
- Idaho, Montana, Washington, August 1910
- 87 dead, including 78 firefighters. The outbreak of fires engulfed newly designated national forests in three states.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Del Giudice in Denver at vdelgiudice@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kristy Scheuble at kmckeaney@bloomberg.net, Alex Tanzi
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