Three other major fires occur along the…
October 1871 CE
Three other major fires occur along the shores of Lake Michigan at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire on the hot, dry and windy autumn day that is October 8.
Some two hundred and fifty miles (four hundred kilometers) to the north, the Peshtigo Fire consumes the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin along with a dozen other villages.
It kills twelve hundred to twenty-five hundre\d people and chars approximately one and a half million million acres (six thousand square kilometers).
The Peshtigo Fire remains the deadliest in American history but the remoteness of the region means it is little noticed at the time.