For my book review on environmental hazards I selected Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History, by Denise Gess and William Lutz. In this review I will describe, analyze, and appraise the book. To start off, I really enjoyed reading this book. At first it was kind of confusing, especially since there are so many different characters. Once I got into the book, though, I found myself very interested in what was going to happen next. Overall, the book did a very nice job of describing the scene before, during, and after the greatest fire in American history. This sound nerdy, but I feel like that was kind of the point of this review, but while reading there were times when I could relate what was happening in the book to what we have learned in class. There were mitigation efforts present and not present, as well as stupid things us as humans did that pretty much caused the fire. So many times during the book I was able to think of what could have, or should have, been done. To do my review I am going to separate the Peshtigo fire into three categories: pre-fire, fire, and post-fire.
The start of the book was by far the most confusing part. Early on I literally had no idea what was going on, because the authors were describing how terrible the conditions were with fires and smoke. It did not dawn on me for a while, but then I realized that the Peshtigo fire was no surprise! All the ingredients for a damaging fire were in place. The area had below average rain and snowfall for over a year and currently they were in a drought. Also the area was a huge lumber area so there were a lot of cut down trees and sawdust that could easily burn up. Fires were actually a very common thing. Almost every day when people went outside they had to cover their mouths with a wet rag, and their eyes were always dry, itchy, and burning from the smoke. Honestly I do not know why these people did not realize the real danger they were in. They literally were battling fires on a daily basis! There were plenty of warning signs but no one left, because the area was called “Eden.” The area was an up and coming lumber town. There were hundreds of people coming to the Peshtigo, Marinette area daily looking for work, and looking for land to start a new life. The book describes how little people actually feared the fires. Most thought that the fires were ordinary because they really did not have much trouble with them in the past so what is different about it now? One of the main characters was the editor of the Peshtigo Eagle, Luther Noyes, and he was well aware of the dangers but he always down played the fires in the paper. Usually he would just make a note of the fire in the newspaper to prevent a widespread panic. There were a lot of people who kept on thinking that they should leave but instead just tried to prepare for the worst. Some people dug fire breaks in hopes that the fire would not be able to cross over. Others would make sure their homes were dampened to reduce the chance of it catching fire. A fail safe for many was a ladder in the well in hopes a fire would just pass over while they were in the damp well. Overall this part of the book was kind of boring, but that is just because it was setting the stage for the actual event. The coolest thing about this book so far was the many different storylines they used to describe the apparent disaster.
By far the most intriguing part of the book was the description of the actual event. I never really realized how bad fire actually was. The general misconception is that the Chicago fire was the worst fire on record. The reason for this was because they occurred on the same day, originating from the same source. Chicago obviously would get more attention because it was a big city. In the post event section I will come back to how this had an effect on the people of Peshtigo. Strong fires actually started up in Minnesota and made their way across Wisconsin. The day it happened meteorologist recorded a falling barometer and tight isobars; both signs that a gale is forming. There was a pretty strong wind that day to which made the fire spread even faster. By the time this powerful fire had reached Peshtigo it had turned into a gustnado. That is a fire resistant to even the best firefighting techniques. It was literally a fire tornado or a firestorm. There is little known about firestorms but one thing is for sure, they are extremely deadly. What happens in these storms is gas is released from the burning that once it comes in contact with oxygen it explodes into a literal fireball. This phenomenon feeds itself as well. To happen it needs strong winds and material to burn to release gas. Once gas is released it shoots out fireballs that quickly burn more material, releasing more gas. This is ultimately what did Peshtigo in. When this happens you almost have no chance of getting away, because it comes at you faster than you can blink. By the time most people in Peshtigo had realized they needed to leave it was already too late. The personal accounts of what happened are horrible. People literally blew up in flames. The winds were so fast and powerful that there was no way to outrun it. Once you were on fire there was no hope because the fire was so hot you would combust always instantly. After the fire there were areas where sand had turned to glass. A big reason also why most had no chance of surviving once on fire was because of the clothing they wore. It was so tight that it was hard to take off when on fire and it also turned into an oven when on fire, with the person being cooked alive. Some tried escaping by wagon but that still was not fast enough to escape the flames. If the fire did not kill you, most likely you would suffocate, or breathe in fiery ash that would burn your lungs. Others tried staying low to the ground digging ditches to hide in, but the fire was so hot that it would still burn you. Really the only hope was that you could make it to the river and even then there was danger of burning or drowning. This part of the book was amazing. The detail provided was incredible and from many different viewpoints. Besides being very descriptive of the event it also showed how disasters such as this can escalate very rapidly. It had a developmental and behavioral approach to the disaster.
The last part of the book focused on the post fire events. First off, nobody knew how bad it was because the telegraph lines had been burned so no one knew what was going on. Also everyone was focused so much on the Chicago fire. These two simultaneous events were critical because the relief efforts in Peshtigo were very grim. Somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 people had died in Peshtigo. For those who survived the hardship was nowhere close to being complete. Many more died in the following days from burns and lack of food and water. Many were burned so severely that they were blinded and had terrible scars for the rest of their lives. Because of the communication problems help did not arrive for over a week. Until then the people had to rely on each other. The post events that followed seem very similar to what we have learned in class. At first the help was amazing. There was a ton of relief coming in to help these people. But that quickly declined as many thought that all the people there needed were supplies, when in fact they lost everything. There were coordination issues as well as corruption in how aid was handed out. No one really knew where all the aid was going so it is suspected that some people were pocketing it. Also as learned in class there are always after effects that can be just as worst. The area was completely barren, but people had to try to rebuild. The next summer there were worms and flies that literally destroyed all the crops, because their predators were no longer around. Again in this section I thought the authors did a great job with many different storylines describing the hardships, especially since many pertained to things we have learned this semester.
Overall I really enjoyed this book because it was interesting to see how things in class could be incorporated with what happened. The ending was very appropriate as well, describing how the town did not give up after the fire. I would definitely recommend this book for future students to review.
