0:05 [SPEAKER_00]: The sky to the west of the small town of Pestigo, Wisconsin, slowed red before the sunrise. 0:11 [SPEAKER_00]: On the morning of October 8, 1871, it was Sunday and when the local priest stepped out of his church to greet local parishioners, the air was smoky and white ash fell like snow. 0:24 [SPEAKER_00]: The priest, whose name was Peter Purnan, turned and went back into the church and ran to the front of the sanctuary. 0:31 [SPEAKER_00]: He grabbed the Holy Tabernacle, the small cabinet, the holds the Catholic Eucharist. 0:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Purnan carried the Tabernacle outside and joined the crowd of people preparing to flee. 0:42 [SPEAKER_00]: If the red sky wasn't enough of a warning that something bad was coming, an eerie sound provided the finishing touch. 0:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Part in later described it as a distant roaring, yet muffled sound, announcing that the elements were in commotion somewhere. 0:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernan hurried toward the river with a tavernacle, dumping it into the water to protect it from the coming inferno. 1:05 [SPEAKER_00]: That's when, as one poet later put it, all hell rode into town on the back of a wind. 1:11 [SPEAKER_00]: And the deadliest wildfire in American history broke out. 1:27 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1871, Pesterga West-Conson was a major limber town. 1:32 [SPEAKER_00]: It was home to the world's largest woodenware factory, which turned out wooden household items, 24-7. 1:38 [SPEAKER_00]: It lay on the northeast side of Green Bay, about six miles away from the shore. 1:43 [SPEAKER_00]: The forest surrounding Pesterga was packed with white pine trees. 1:47 [SPEAKER_00]: These massive trees were perfect for lumber, 120 feet tall, and three feet in diameter. 1:53 [SPEAKER_00]: The wood from one tree could build an entire house. 1:57 [SPEAKER_00]: The Pesticah River, wound throughout the center of the town, this made it easy for lagers to chop a tree, strip off its branches, and roll it into the river. 2:06 [SPEAKER_00]: The river floated the logs right to the mill. 2:08 [SPEAKER_00]: When the area was clear, lagers set fire to the remaining storms, branches, and other debris. 2:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Wood was everywhere, and Pesticah houses, stores, bridges, shingles, and sidewalks were all wooden. 2:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Saltust was used as mattress stuffing, and to dry moisture on the streets, Pestigo was always at risk of burning. 2:30 [SPEAKER_00]: To make matters more dangerous, a terrible drought stretched throughout the Great Lakes region. 2:35 [SPEAKER_00]: It had only rain twice all summer. 2:37 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, a small fire had broken out two weeks earlier, men with buckets of water, and the volunteer fire department, from the nearby town of Marinette, extinguished it, that fire, and others that commonly broke out further to the west, made the air so smoky and dark that schools often had a close. 2:56 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernant himself had an experience with an unexpected fire when he moved to Pestigo. 3:01 [SPEAKER_00]: two years earlier, a 12-year-old boy took him on a hunting trip. 3:05 [SPEAKER_00]: As night fell, Pernan and the boy began hearing the sound of fire, and the noise came from underground. 3:11 [SPEAKER_00]: This was a frequent phenomenon. 3:13 [SPEAKER_00]: The fire would burn underground almost constantly, using dry peat and either organic material, just below the surface as fuel. 3:21 [SPEAKER_00]: On the night of the hunting trip, those flames rose to the surface. 3:25 [SPEAKER_00]: It started by just burning dry leaves. 3:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernan said, 3:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Purnant and the boy were trapped in a circle of flames. 3:34 [SPEAKER_00]: Towns people who knew Purnant and the boy were in the woods came out to save them. 3:38 [SPEAKER_00]: They beat the flames with tree branches to create a path for the pair to get out of the circle. 3:46 [SPEAKER_00]: That fire wasn't huge, and didn't reach Pestergo, but the speed with which it grew, terrified Pernon. 3:52 [SPEAKER_00]: All the previous fires were simply foreshadowing the major event. 3:57 [SPEAKER_00]: You've probably heard of the great Chicago fire, Miss O'Leary's cow allegedly knocked over a lantern, and the summer long drought to care of the rest, the fire killed 300 people, destroyed three square miles of the city, and left 100,000 residents homeless. 4:13 [SPEAKER_00]: On that same day, October 8, 1871, a cold front moved into the town from the northwest, mingling with the remaining summer heat. 4:22 [SPEAKER_00]: This formed what's known as a low pressure cell. 4:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Air rises and cools off while warm air rushes into the cell to replace it. 4:29 [SPEAKER_00]: This causes a counterclockwise spinning motion. 4:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Hurricanes are the most well-known form of low pressure cells. 4:37 [SPEAKER_00]: The wind picked up as the evening advanced, reaching an estimated 110 miles per hour, the redness to the west, rightened. 4:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Around 10 o'clock, a group of men prepared a mechanical pump to spray water from the river. 4:51 [SPEAKER_00]: Others filled buckets and doused their homes with water, hoping the dampness would keep them from burning. 4:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Some pesticans got ready to leave. 4:58 [SPEAKER_00]: They packed bags, saddle horses, and made their way to neighboring towns for the night. 5:04 [SPEAKER_00]: Others, perhaps desensitized by all the false alarms they'd seen that summer, continued on with their lives. 5:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The low rumbling that Pernand described turned into a roar like a freight train, or a waterfall, as she deflames erupted from the forest. 5:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The men dropped their hoses and ran. 5:22 [SPEAKER_00]: This whirling wind had formed a fire tornado, something straight out of a nightmare. 5:28 [SPEAKER_00]: The Twister swept up buildings. 5:30 [SPEAKER_00]: rail cars, and people, charring them before throwing the remnants miles away. 5:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Survivors said they could see birds trying to fly away from the funnel, but they were sucked back into the flames. 5:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernant described the noise. 5:44 [SPEAKER_00]: 8,000 deafening noises rose on the air together. 5:48 [SPEAKER_00]: the name of horses, falling of chimneys, crashing of uprooted trees, roaring and whistling of the wind, crackling a fire, as it ran with lightning-like rapidity from house to house. 6:00 [SPEAKER_00]: There was one notable absence, all sounds were there, save that of the human voice. 6:06 [SPEAKER_00]: People seemed strict and dumb, by terror, pertinent said. 6:11 [SPEAKER_00]: The firestorm settled over Pestigo, savoring all the fuel in the town. 6:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Structures were consumed instantly. 6:17 [SPEAKER_00]: The wooden town was nothing but fuel for the fire. 6:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Dust, in ash, and smoke blinded the Pestigans, causing mass chaos, some ran toward the river. 6:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Others in the confusion and churning mass ran away from it. 6:31 [SPEAKER_00]: Straight toward death, Pernan joined the crowd, running toward the river, and they got there. 6:37 [SPEAKER_00]: Somewhere afraid to jump in, because they couldn't swim, and the river was cold. 6:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernan convinced many of them, the risk of drowning was better than burning alive. 6:46 [SPEAKER_00]: Several pestigins, shared Pernan's opinion that burning alive was the worst death imaginable. 6:52 [SPEAKER_00]: One father slit the throats of his wife and children. 6:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Another tighter news surround his daughter's neck and pushed her into a well before killing himself the same way. 7:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Those in the river had to tread water, while also splashing their heads to keep them from burning, many dip clothes and blankets into the water, and then covered their heads. 7:11 [SPEAKER_00]: But the heat dried the material instantly, and it caught on fire. 7:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The fire jumped over the river, the force of the wind blew burning debris across the water. 7:20 [SPEAKER_00]: Bridges provided another path for the fire to reach the east side of the town. 7:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernan said that when he looked up, he couldn't see the sky because of the flames that roared overhead. 7:30 [SPEAKER_00]: He compared the flames to clouds that roared across the sky during a storm. 7:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Others who weren't near the river had to look for other types of shelter. 7:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Some jumped into wells, which seemed like a safe idea, but they were often trapped by burning, falling wood, or suffocated, when the firestorm sucked up all the oxygen. 7:50 [SPEAKER_00]: Some lay in shallow streams, and covered themselves with mud, others survived by hiding behind a rock or hill, in the fire went above them. 7:58 [SPEAKER_00]: This was the tactic chosen by one mother, who was found burned to death behind a rock, having protected her infant well enough for the baby to survive. 8:08 [SPEAKER_00]: A family of five got into their horse-drawn wagon and tried to escape, but there was nowhere to go. 8:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The horse caught on fire, panicked, and drove the entire family back into the blaze. 8:19 [SPEAKER_00]: 75 people decided to wait out the fire in a boarding house. 8:23 [SPEAKER_00]: They all died. 8:25 [SPEAKER_00]: The firestorm burned so hot that the sand on the streets and along the river banks melted into glass. 8:32 [SPEAKER_00]: There were holes in the ground where trees and stems burned to the end of the roots. 8:35 [SPEAKER_00]: The bell at Pernon's church melted. 8:38 [SPEAKER_00]: The only structure left standing in the morning was a brick 8:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernan spent five and a half hours in the river. 8:47 [SPEAKER_00]: He and others were temporarily blinded by the extreme heat and blowing dust. 8:52 [SPEAKER_00]: In a cool paradox, a frigid October morning awaited those who emerged from the river. 8:57 [SPEAKER_00]: The ground was still warm, so Pernan and others laid down to keep from freezing. 9:02 [SPEAKER_00]: With his sight came back, Pernin comforted and prayed for those who were dying. 9:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Someone pointed Pernin toward the Tabernacle that he had rescued. 9:10 [SPEAKER_00]: It was wedge between some debris floating in the river, still intact. 9:14 [SPEAKER_00]: It was one of the few things that survived. 9:17 [SPEAKER_00]: But the time word got to the capital city of Madison, they had already sent all their help to Chicago, firefighters, doctors, and officials were headed south, any lives that could have been saved by timely assistance, and Pestigo, were lost. 9:32 [SPEAKER_00]: The firestorm destroyed 16 communities, along Green Bay, between 1500 to 2500 people died across the region, at least five times more 9:45 [SPEAKER_00]: The fires reach, stretched as far south as the northern outskirts of Green Bay, and north into the upper peninsula of Michigan. 9:53 [SPEAKER_00]: The town of Marinette, seven miles away, was partially burned, their remaining hotels and houses were used as hospitals. 10:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Causes of death varied, some who jumped in the river, died of hypothermia, or drowned. 10:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Others died of suicide, smoke inhalation, heat exposure, falling debris, or simply burned 10:14 [SPEAKER_00]: Only 800 Pestigan survived, meaning many of the dead had no one left to identify them. 10:20 [SPEAKER_00]: They went into mass graves, along with those who were unidentifiable. 10:24 [SPEAKER_00]: A first person account of the cleanup describes bearing 900 to 1000 in a trench. 10:31 [SPEAKER_00]: One mass grave has since been exhumed, revealing over 350 people. 10:36 [SPEAKER_00]: Some people were completely 10:42 [SPEAKER_00]: A miserable side effect of the fire was the death of almost all living things, pets, livestock, bugs, wildlife, all burned, making recovery even more difficult, and all more than 1.2 million acres burned, leaving a scorched shell almost three times the size of Houston. 11:03 [SPEAKER_00]: Some people hypothesized that the series of fires in the region were caused by fragments from B.L.E.C.E. 11:10 [SPEAKER_00]: but most scientists have rejected that idea in favor of a more logical explanation. 11:15 [SPEAKER_00]: The terrible drought combined with hazardous agricultural techniques caused the conflagration. 11:22 [SPEAKER_00]: The slash and burn agriculture used by larders in the region was dangerous, they rarely extinguished the fires they said. 11:30 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, those fires often burned continuously underground, using hummus and peat and root systems as fuel. 11:38 [SPEAKER_00]: Thus, there didn't even need to be an outside spark from a comet or stray match. 11:44 [SPEAKER_00]: The fire was already set. 11:46 [SPEAKER_00]: The combination of ignition, 11:47 [SPEAKER_00]: Hurricane like winds, and fuel sources, formed what's known as the Pestico Paradise. 11:55 [SPEAKER_00]: American and British militaries studied the Pesticope paradigm to duplicate the firestorm. 12:00 [SPEAKER_00]: They used what they learned to make effective bombs against Japan and Germany in World War II. 12:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Pesticope was eventually rebuilt and is now a town of about 3,500 residents. 12:11 [SPEAKER_00]: It never recovered as a lumber town, of course, because all the trees had burned. 12:16 [SPEAKER_00]: Pernon wrote his story down and sold it to race funds to rebuild the churches that were destroyed. 12:23 [SPEAKER_00]: This is how we know so much of what happened. 12:25 [SPEAKER_00]: He called his memoir The Finger of God is there, and it can be found in most libraries. 12:31 [SPEAKER_00]: You can also learn more about the incident by visiting the Pestergo Fire Museum. 12:35 [SPEAKER_00]: It's housed in an old church, the first building that was rebuilt after the fire. 12:40 [SPEAKER_00]: It's home to exhibits and artifacts from the fire, story telling events, a cemetery for those who died, and one of the museum's most popular attractions,
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