The Big Blowup

Wallace ID after the Big Blowup

The largest forest fire in American history was burning three million acres in two days across northern Idaho and western Montana back on this date in 1910. 

The Big Blowup, as it was called, was fanned by hurricane force winds that caused smoldering fires to turn into raging firestorms. The fires consumed 3 ½ million acres of prime timber.  

Smoke from the fires turned the noontime sky into night northward into Saskatchewan and east to New York.  Ships in the Pacific Ocean were lost in the smoke. 

Eighty two people died in the fires, including seventy five firefighters.

The town on Wallace ID was nearly destroyed by fire.  The Northern Pacific Railroad evacuated nearly the entire population.   

Idaho’s Edward Pulaski saved most of his fire crew of 45 from certain death by taking refuge in a mine shaft at War Eagle Mine. He later went on to develop the fire-fighting tool that still bears his name today. 

The official cause of the fire was never determined.  An extremely light winter snowpack caused dry conditions at the start of fire season.  This was exacerbated by extremely dry conditions throughout 1910.  By summer, thousands of fires had burned or were burning, caused by loggers, campers, and by embers for coal fired steam locomotives. 

The fires were reportedly under control by August 19th, before the winds came. 

The fire was not the deadliest in U.S. history.  That dubious distinction goes to the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fire of 1871. Fifteen hundred people died in the Wisconsin forest fire that occurred the same night as the Great Chicago Fire.

Category: Met 101/Weather History