Think about the things you love and care about. Your home, your family, your photographs that keep the memories you hold dearly, even the things you say you hate now but know you would miss if they were gone. Like the ugly photo your wife insists stays up but you deal with it because you know she loves it. Imagine all these things being taken away without your consent, while you just watch helplessly as your memories just disappear. Sadly enough, this was the reality for several families living in the North-west at the time of the 1910 fires. Some watched as the fires consumed their homes, while others came back to nothingness. This was a devastating time for everyone in the North-west and it caused a lot of controversy within the forest …show more content…
Some say there were 1,736 fires that burned and others say 3,000 total, but any way you look at it, there was still a ton of woodland burning. On August 19 all of the fires seemed to have died down tremendously, so they sent people home, however, they had no idea what Mother Nature had planned for the next two days (Petersen).
Of course the worst comes after everyone thinks it is over. August 20th through the 21st was filled with winds as strong as tornados that swept through northern Idaho and western Montana. The winds rekindled the hot coals and the thousands of fires from the day before became one massive fire. Jim Petersen described the sights in an editorial for Evergreen Magazine in 1995; he said, ”… fires became firestorms, and trees by the millions became exploding candles. Millions more, sucked from the ground, roots and all, became flying blowtorches. It was dark by four in the afternoon, save for wind-powered fireballs that rolled from ridge top to ridge top at seventy miles an hour. They lea.-The “Big Blowup,” as they call the two horrific days of the fires didn’t just influence the forests and people of the area, “By noon on the twenty-first, daylight was dark as far north as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as far south as Denver, and as far east as Watertown, New York. To the west, the sky was so filled with smoke, ships 500 miles at sea could not navigate by
On April 29, 1910, the largest forest fire in American history occurred. Some would come to know it as the Big Burn, or the Big Blowup. Later others called it the (the one that says it saved American landscape.) This travesty took more than 100 men. The impact it had on Americans was monumental. Timothy Egan’s The Big Burn, he writes about the many people who perished during this disaster. Stories of people who were engulfed by the flames at Bitterroot Mountain who had little chance of escaping their devastating fate. Even though this is still seen as a travesty, some look at it in a different way. Due to how large the fire was and how far it stretched, it made people aware of the importance to protect Americas forests and natural resources. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, reform was occurring. The United States population was on a rise which had an effect on economic growth. This caused expansion in the consumer market and made way for an enormous amount of advancement in technology. Due to all of this, the demand for natural resources vastly increased. Inventions such as cars and trains consumed massive amounts of fossil fuels. Wood was stripped away from forests to make comfort items such as chairs, tables and other items for the large number of families now setting in the United States from foreign countries. People did not seem to pay much attentions to the effects these changes were having on the land. However, President Theodor Roosevelt had
On the day of September 11, 1857, an emigrant party camped at Mountain Meadows was brutally killed by the Mormon militia aided by Indians. This essay examines two viewpoints regarding the massacre found in Sally Denton’s “American Massacre” and in “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Turley.
People don’t know how it started but some people think it started by one of their cows kicking over a lantern and other people think it started from meteors. The fire was 4 miles long and 4 miles wide, about 300 people died from the fire and about 100,000 without homes.The fire caused about 200 million dollars in damage.Almost every person didn’t have a job.
fires in the first week of October, on Saturday night, October 7, a blaze broke
On March 6,2017, the Panhandle of Texas caught on fire. The wildfire had burned over 500,000 acres of land. Most of this land includes livestock and feed for livestock. Several people had died during this traumatic event, because they were trying to save their livestock and land Cortana (2017). The wildfires burning in Texas can be seen from space, they are that huge Cortana (2017).
There are many examples of struggle and despair during the fire, but there is one that I found very compelling. This excerpt from a letter written by a businessman from Chicago in 1871 brought into account the amount of people who came back and tried to save their precious belongings instead of focusing on getting out of town. The man in this example was able to sneak away with his life but faced some very close to death moments.
The Cedar Fire burned for two weeks before the fire could be contained. During this two week timeline, the fire consumed approximately 500 buildings, 2,300
In 2016 “there have been more than 4,000 wildfires in California, with well over 300,000 acres of land burned” (Kieran Cooke).
The wooden city often experienced fires but, on October 8, 1871 the firefighters were already fatigued from a large fire the night before. The previous fire also resulted in the loss of some firefighting equipment. To make matters worse, the city had been experiencing a lengthy dry spell. A steady breeze from the Southwest, in addition to the dry spell which had spanned the length of several months, would make firefighters efforts futile.
The county fire marshal Alan Carson, saw the fire around 1.30 am and he defined the fire was a big one. Added that the weather and
Didion’s tone was serious, ominous, and dark, and was very different from Thomas’s tone which was more positive. Although acknowledging the destructive nature of the fires caused by the Santa Ana winds, Thomas generally talked about positive results of the fires. She describes the “amazing sight” of the fire as she watches “the flames lick up a hillside” and ends the essay by reminding the reader that the “chaparral will return.” By this, she means that many of the plants in chaparral country need the heat of the flames to reproduce, so within a few weeks, new plants will rise from the ashes. The fire also helps get rid of the dead plants that need to be burnt so they can get out of the way for new plants to come in. Didion has a very different tone regarding the winds. She describes the various hints of change with dark words. To her, there is an “eerie absence of surf” and the “heat was surreal,” instead of it simply being hot with no waves in the water. The author particularly chooses words with creepy connotations to make the reader feel a similar feeling to the uneasiness that the Southern California natives feel. These contrasting tones make the authors' opposing views on the winds very evident.
Imagine a single event that can kill 57 people and 7000 deer and elk. Snap trees like a toothpick, and turn the sky grey for 15 days. Now, stop imagining, Mount St. Helens, in the Cascade Range of southwestern Washington State, erupted. On May 18th,1980. According to (Campbell 371), “At least $1 billion in economic damage was reported”. The eruption of Mount St. Helens took many lives, and devastated America. Mount St. Helens destroyed more than 230 square miles of ancient forest.
The fire was supposedly caused by Catherine O'Leary's cow who kicked over a lantern, however this is just legend and can't be proven as the actual start of the fire. The fire burned out of control due to the windy quality of the city and possibly even the dry weather. Another contributing factor is that the fire department was sent to the wrong location, which caused them to arrived at the fire later then they should have. The Fire began on the night of October 8th and was finally put out on the 10th. The fire was extinguished by the firefighters, but was also put out due the rain that fell that day. As you can see the fire was very uncontrollable, lasted for a long period of time, and would cause severe damage to the city.
On July 10, 2001 four U.S Forest Service Firefighters died while battling the thirty mile fire. Six others injured including two hikers. The thirty mile fire was the second deadliest fire in Washington state history.
In August of 2013, a severe and fast spreading fire, called Dubbed as the well-known largest fire in history, as “The Rim Fire.” The fire ha burned much of the forestland an area of approximately 402 square miles. I could see some of the damage and affects, even as of this visit a few years after it happened. Surprisingly, in some areas along the many miles and ranges we traveled to stop, some looked even more burned out than others did, then some areas looked untouched where some areas almost next door on another turn seemed destroyed. Many areas along these mountains were eerily quiet. It felt chilling and creepy. Yet, it was peaceful and still I could find beauty in the death that occurred. Later, the Rim Fire was investigated and found to have been caused by a careless hunter, one man and his idea to start an illegal