Recent from talks
Great Fire of 1910
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Great Fire of 1910
The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States which burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi; 12,100 km2) in Northern Idaho and Western Montana in the summer of 1910, with extensions into Eastern Washington and Southeast British Columbia. The area burned included large parts of the Bitterroot, Cabinet, Clearwater, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kaniksu, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, and St. Joe national forests. The fire burned over two days on the weekend of August 20–21, after strong winds caused numerous smaller fires to combine into a firestorm of unprecedented size. It killed 87 people, mostly firefighters, destroyed numerous manmade structures, including several entire towns, and burned more than three million acres of forest with an estimated one billion dollars' worth of timber lost. While the exact cause of the fire is often debated, according to various U.S. Forest Service sources, the primary cause of the Big Burn was a combination of severe drought and a series of lightning storms that ignited hundreds of small fires across the Northern Rockies. Ignition sources also likely included human activity such as from railroads, homesteaders, and loggers. It is believed to be the largest, although not the deadliest, forest fire in U.S. history.
In the aftermath of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service received considerable recognition for its firefighting efforts, including a doubling of its budget from Congress. The outcome was to highlight wildland firefighters as heroes while raising public awareness of national nature conservation. The fire is often considered a significant impetus in the development of early wildfire prevention and suppression strategies.
A number of factors contributed to the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1910. The wildfire season started early that year because the winter of 1909–1910 and the spring and summer of 1910 were extremely dry, and the summer sufficiently hot to have been described as "like no others." The drought resulted in forests with abundant dry fuel, in an area which had previously experienced dependable autumn and winter moisture. Hundreds of fires were ignited by hot cinders flung from locomotives, sparks, lightning, and backfiring crews. By mid-August, there were an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 individual fires burning in Idaho, Montana, and Washington.
Saturday, August 20, 1910, brought hurricane-force winds to the interior northwest, whipping the hundreds of small fires into one or two much larger blazing infernos. Such a conflagration was impossible to fight; there were too few men and supplies. The United States Forest Service (then called the National Forest Service) was only five years old at the time and unprepared for the possibilities of the dry summer or a fire of this magnitude, although throughout the summer it had been urgently recruiting as many men as possible to fight the hundreds of fires already burning. Many of these recruits had little forestry or firefighting experience. Earlier in August, President William Howard Taft had authorized the addition of military troops to the effort, and 4,000 troops, including seven companies from the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment (known as the Buffalo Soldiers), were brought in to help fight the fires burning in the northern Rockies. The arrival of the Buffalo Soldiers troops almost doubled the black population of Idaho.
Smoke from the fire was said to have been seen as far east as Watertown, New York, and as far south as Denver, Colorado. It was reported that, at night, five hundred miles (800 km) out into the Pacific Ocean, ships could not navigate by the stars because the sky was cloudy with smoke.
The extreme scorching heat of the sudden inferno has been attributed to the expansive Western white pine forests that covered much of northern Idaho at the time, due to their flammable sap.
The fire was finally extinguished when another cold front swept in, bringing steady rain and some early snowfall.
At least 78 firefighters were killed while trying to control the fire, not including those firefighters who died after the fire from smoke damage to their lungs. The entire 28-man "Lost Crew" was overcome by flames and perished on Setzer Creek outside of Avery, Idaho. It remains the second deadliest incident in the history of firefighting in the United States, only being surpassed by the September 11 attacks.
Hub AI
Great Fire of 1910 AI simulator
(@Great Fire of 1910_simulator)
Great Fire of 1910
The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States which burned three million acres (4,700 sq mi; 12,100 km2) in Northern Idaho and Western Montana in the summer of 1910, with extensions into Eastern Washington and Southeast British Columbia. The area burned included large parts of the Bitterroot, Cabinet, Clearwater, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kaniksu, Kootenai, Lewis and Clark, Lolo, and St. Joe national forests. The fire burned over two days on the weekend of August 20–21, after strong winds caused numerous smaller fires to combine into a firestorm of unprecedented size. It killed 87 people, mostly firefighters, destroyed numerous manmade structures, including several entire towns, and burned more than three million acres of forest with an estimated one billion dollars' worth of timber lost. While the exact cause of the fire is often debated, according to various U.S. Forest Service sources, the primary cause of the Big Burn was a combination of severe drought and a series of lightning storms that ignited hundreds of small fires across the Northern Rockies. Ignition sources also likely included human activity such as from railroads, homesteaders, and loggers. It is believed to be the largest, although not the deadliest, forest fire in U.S. history.
In the aftermath of the fire, the U.S. Forest Service received considerable recognition for its firefighting efforts, including a doubling of its budget from Congress. The outcome was to highlight wildland firefighters as heroes while raising public awareness of national nature conservation. The fire is often considered a significant impetus in the development of early wildfire prevention and suppression strategies.
A number of factors contributed to the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1910. The wildfire season started early that year because the winter of 1909–1910 and the spring and summer of 1910 were extremely dry, and the summer sufficiently hot to have been described as "like no others." The drought resulted in forests with abundant dry fuel, in an area which had previously experienced dependable autumn and winter moisture. Hundreds of fires were ignited by hot cinders flung from locomotives, sparks, lightning, and backfiring crews. By mid-August, there were an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 individual fires burning in Idaho, Montana, and Washington.
Saturday, August 20, 1910, brought hurricane-force winds to the interior northwest, whipping the hundreds of small fires into one or two much larger blazing infernos. Such a conflagration was impossible to fight; there were too few men and supplies. The United States Forest Service (then called the National Forest Service) was only five years old at the time and unprepared for the possibilities of the dry summer or a fire of this magnitude, although throughout the summer it had been urgently recruiting as many men as possible to fight the hundreds of fires already burning. Many of these recruits had little forestry or firefighting experience. Earlier in August, President William Howard Taft had authorized the addition of military troops to the effort, and 4,000 troops, including seven companies from the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment (known as the Buffalo Soldiers), were brought in to help fight the fires burning in the northern Rockies. The arrival of the Buffalo Soldiers troops almost doubled the black population of Idaho.
Smoke from the fire was said to have been seen as far east as Watertown, New York, and as far south as Denver, Colorado. It was reported that, at night, five hundred miles (800 km) out into the Pacific Ocean, ships could not navigate by the stars because the sky was cloudy with smoke.
The extreme scorching heat of the sudden inferno has been attributed to the expansive Western white pine forests that covered much of northern Idaho at the time, due to their flammable sap.
The fire was finally extinguished when another cold front swept in, bringing steady rain and some early snowfall.
At least 78 firefighters were killed while trying to control the fire, not including those firefighters who died after the fire from smoke damage to their lungs. The entire 28-man "Lost Crew" was overcome by flames and perished on Setzer Creek outside of Avery, Idaho. It remains the second deadliest incident in the history of firefighting in the United States, only being surpassed by the September 11 attacks.
Recent media