Why...
- Was the fire so bad?
- Did the Chicago fire also happen on this day?
- Do not a lot of people know about the Peshtigo fire?
1. Why was the fire so bad?
2. Why did the Chicago fire happen on the same day?
"The same winds and dry weather that contributed to the Peshtigo blaze caused roughly 3.5 square miles of Chicago to burn, The entire downtown-including 18,000 buildings-was destroyed, and approximately 300 people were killed. " -Tarshis, Lauren. "The Blood Red Night." Storyworks. Vol. 22. Jefferson City, MO: Scholastic, 2015. 4-9. Print. January, 2015.
3. Why do not a lot of people know about the PEshtigo fire?
The reason that not many people know about the Peshtigo fire, is because so many people were killed (Historians estimate 1,000 to 2,500 people died) and most of the survivors just left town trying to put the memories of the fire behind them. Also, because the fire damage was so wide spread, it burned down Peshtigo railroads and telegraphs so the word of the fire had basically no way to spread.