I am always running across the misuse of the word “firestorm” in news copy, and when I get a chance, I change it.

A firestorm is a real phenomenon, not a “controversy” or an “argument”, but a terrible destructive force of nature that is actually extremely rare.

Just finished a riveting book entitled “Firestorm in Peshtigo”, by Denise Gess and William Lutz. It describes the worst fire in American history.. possibly in North American history. It happened the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, October 8, 1871, and although it has been forgotten by popular history, it was much, much worse. Unimaginably so. The number of dead remains and always will remain undetermined, but it’s between 1500 and 2000. The fire destroyed the lumber and farming community of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and burned through a billion (with a “b”) trees. The fire area stretched from Green Bay, north to Peshtigo and Marinette, and east across the bay to Door County. The authors build up to the fateful date with a thoroughly researched account of weather conditions and human enterprise, whose combined effect was disastrous. The United States did not yet have a Weather Service, but a remarkable man named Increase Lapham was a scientist in the field of meteorology, and he tried to warn of the coming danger. In the weeks leading up to the firestorm, the lumber business was booming (the trees in that area then were enormous pine trees, a few stories tall, and as much as ten feet in diameter. They’re all gone.. cut down or burned down.). a railroad was being built, and farmers were suffering through a drought. Small fires popped up and were put out all over the region in the weeks before October 8, and Lapham could see the potential for an uncontrollable wildfire, given the “right” weather conditions. Few listened and almost no one prepared. When the wind and the heat and the dryness cooked up a wicked meteorological stew, flames swept through the Wisconsin countryside, picking up speed until the fire and wind began to feed on themselves, and a TORNADO of FLAME roared down on the villages of Pestigo and Williamsonville. It was a firestorm. People could not escape, and were incinerated where they stood.

The message I came away with, is that bureaucrats and politicians risk all our lives and futures when they do not heed and pass along to the public the warnings of diligent scientists. The lives of hundreds could have been saved, had the fledgling weather bureau been more alert to Mr. Lapham’s calculations.

PAULA DILWORTH FRANCIS May 22, 2008

Categories: Environment