The priest dug feverishly! Time was short! He wanted to bury everything of value to him that would likely be destroyed by fire. In the distance, not far to the southwest, he could see the fiery crimson of flames lifting high to the sky, and they headed toward his town and his church. The wind was whistling through this town, blowing away or blowing down everything that was not tied down.
When he had buried everything he could, he gathered other valued items, secured them in his wagon, and managed to push the wagon into the nearby Peshtigo River.
Now, it was time to flee. The priest was not alone, and he was almost too late. “Fire fell as if from the sky onto the people of Peshtigo. There was little chance to fight this fire. Every part of town burst into flames like a huge explosion.” Going down the street, he was joined by many others, all intent on getting to the river. Meeting them, many fled in the opposite direction. Though going opposite directions, each group believed they were escaping the fire.
The crowds were eerily silent, with minimal conversation. Escape was paramount in every mind. Women were desperately holding on to their children as they fled. Every face registered tension and anxiety. The fire was on both sides of the river. When the frightened crowd arrived at the bridge, there was pandemonium. Crowds of people, wagons, horses, and animals met going opposite directions, crashing, falling, and becoming entangled.
Many sought refuge from the fire by wading into the icy cold river up to their neck. As the priest started to enter the river, he noticed a terrified woman holding the hand of a daughter in one hand and what looked like an infant wrapped in a blanket clutched close to her bosom. It was not there when she opened the blanket to look at her child. She had somehow dropped the infant while attempting to escape. Stupor and desolation enveloped her face as she wailed, “Ah, my child!” She then fought her way to the river, where, he learned later, she died in the water.
But even in the river, they were not safe. Flames had engulfed buildings on both sides of the river. The fire met over the river, sending sparks and embers down on the heads of those in the water. Splashing water on their heads and those around them, they managed to escape burning.
After five and one-half hours in the water, he and the others could emerge. Now, they had to deal with the after-effects of being in the cold water all that time.
After some recovery time, they could look and assess the damage. A crew had been able to move and bury bodies. In some places, they could not discern between human and animal remains. Bodies of dead animals and ashes from the destroyed buildings were everywhere. The town of Peshtigo was gone. The iron of the railroad tracks was twisted and reshaped. The timbers that held the tracks were gone. The boilers of two locomotives remained, as did the iron on the wagon wheels and the brick and stonework of the factory.
The Reverend Peter Purnin, priest, was the only survivor who chronicled the whole story, which I summarized above.
Peshtigo, Wisconsin was a booming logging town near Green Bay, with a population of about 1700 in 1871. But as loggers harvested the trees, they left piles of refuse – tinder in their wake. Railroads cleared lands using small fires and left piles of leftover wood. The entire town was a tinderbox with wood structures, wooden sidewalks, and wood chips for pavement.
In this small town was the country’s largest woodenware factory to convert river-borne logs into pails, tubs, broom handles, barrel covers, and clothespins. There was also a sawmill, a sash, door, and blind factory, a foundry and blacksmith shop, stores, hotels, a boarding house, and, to the villagers’ considerable pride, a schoolhouse and a Protestant as well as a Catholic church.
The summer of 1871 was hot and dry, producing favorable conditions for a destructive fire. The danger was building all over the Midwest, and deadly fires erupted at various locations.
” On the day of the Peshtigo fire, an eastward-moving cold front increased the wind speed and several slash-and-burn fires merged. A firestorm ensued. In the words of Gess and Lutz, in a firestorm, “superheated flames of at least 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit … advance on winds of 110 miles per hour or stronger. The diameter of such a fire ranges from one thousand to ten thousand feet … When a firestorm erupts in a forest, it is a blowup, nature’s nuclear explosion … ”
The American news media diminished the story of the Peshtigo fire because of the more famous story of the Chicago Fire on the same date. Yet across the Midwest, many large fires occurred near that time in 1871. The news media published heavily the Chicago Fire, overshadowing the much more devastating and destructive fire at Peshtigo and the surrounding area.
But consider these quotes from The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871.
“The most famous fire struck Chicago, and claimed about 300 lives while destroying over three square miles of the city, including more than 17,000 buildings.”
“Fire reached Peshtigo during the evening of Sunday, October 8, 1871. By the time the fire ended, it had consumed ~1.5 million acres, and an estimated 1,200-2,400 lives (exact number unknown), including approximately 800 in Peshtigo.”
Peshtigo was rebuilt; today (2025), it has a population of about 3400. It is known as the “City Rebuilt from Ashes.”
Some lessons can be learned from the story of Peshtigo.
- News media and history often do not tell the whole story. It can be essential to question further and research subjects of interest.
- Peshtigo had many warnings – (parched weather, little and big fires preceding the massive fire of 1871) but the citizens did not act on them.
- The danger of observing the warning signs but not acting.
I am reminded of critical warning signs today.
- Do not trust the mainstream media. Often, they are guilty of minimizing dangers, omitting important facts, and propagandizing.
- Don’t follow the crowd. Do your own thinking.
- Don’t neglect the most significant warnings of all time.
- Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death.”
- Hebrews 9:27: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
- Luke 13:3: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
- John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son of God.”
The antidote for these significant warnings – John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
fire is a terrible thing
i am a survivor of the bredford city staduim fire in 1985
I was in the stand that day
the heat of it standing across the pitch was terrible.. if that was that hot
what would hell be like
we must share the gospel because every day thousands are going to die without christ
thanks for this timely reminder dale
Excellent Dale
I have a cousin who perished in a fire 30 years ago, a young woman at that time – she went in to save her dog and died. Her dog was already outside, and she didn’t realize it. And another cousin’s home in California, burned down to the ground. So this article hit home.
Have a blessed day