Great Fire of 1910

A number of factors contributed to the destruction caused by the Great Fire of 1910. The wildfire season started early that year because the winter of 1909–1910 and the spring and summer of 1910 were extremely dry,[http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/us/10/00/pcp/6/08/1895-2014?base_prd=true&firstbaseyear=1895&lastbaseyear=1966&trend=true&trend_base=10&firsttrendyear=1967&lasttrendyear=2014 Idaho Spring/Summer Precipitation]; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the summer sufficiently hot to have been described as "like no others."{{cite web|title=Teddy Roosevelt And The Fire That Saved The Forests|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114248029|publisher=NPR|access-date=May 26, 2014|date=October 29, 2009}} The drought resulted in forests with abundant dry fuel, in an area which had previously experienced dependable autumn and winter moisture.[http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag/time-series/us/10/00/pcp/6/08/1895-2014?base_prd=true&firstbaseyear=1896&lastbaseyear=1967&trend=true&trend_base=10&firsttrendyear=1967&lasttrendyear=2015 Idaho Autumn/Winter Precipitation]; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hundreds of fires were ignited by hot cinders flung from locomotives, sparks, lightning, and backfiring crews. By mid-August, there were an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 individual fires burning in Idaho, Montana, and Washington.

Saturday, August 20, 1910 brought hurricane-force winds to the interior northwest, whipping the hundreds of small fires into one or two much larger blazing infernos. Such a conflagration was impossible to fight; there were too few men and supplies. The United States Forest Service (then called the National Forest Service) was only five years old at the time and unprepared for the possibilities of the dry summer or a fire of this magnitude, although throughout the summer it had been urgently recruiting as many men as possible to fight the hundreds of fires already burning. Many of these recruits had little forestry or firefighting experience. Earlier in August, President William Howard Taft had authorized the addition of military troops to the effort, and 4,000 troops, including seven companies from the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment (known as the Buffalo Soldiers), were brought in to help fight the fires burning in the northern Rockies.{{citation| title=Report of the Commanding Officer of G Company, 25th Infantry Regiment| first=Edson E.| last=Lewis| date=September 7, 1910}} in {{cite journal| first=Marvin| last=Fletcher| title=Army Fire Fighters| url=https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Army-Fire-Fighters.pdf|date=Summer 1972| journal=Idaho Yesterdays| pages=12–15| access-date=July 16, 2014}} The arrival of the Buffalo Soldiers troops almost doubled the black population of Idaho.

Smoke from the fire was said to have been seen as far east as Watertown, New York, and as far south as Denver, Colorado. It was reported that, at night, {{convert|500|mi|spell=in}} out into the Pacific Ocean, ships could not navigate by the stars because the sky was cloudy with smoke.

The extreme scorching heat of the sudden inferno has been attributed to the expansive Western white pine forests that covered much of northern Idaho at the time, due to their flammable sap.{{Cite book|title=A Natural History of Western Trees|last=Peattie|first=Donald|authorlink=Donald C. Peattie|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1950|isbn=978-0395581759|location=Boston|pages=45–47}}

The fire was finally extinguished when another cold front swept in, bringing steady rain and some early snowfall.

File:St Maries 1910 Fire Memorial 1 - St Maries Idaho.jpg
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At least 78 firefighters were killed while trying to control the fire, not including those firefighters who died after the fire from smoke damage to their lungs. The entire 28-man "Lost Crew" was overcome by flames and perished on Setzer Creek outside of Avery, Idaho.{{Cite book|last=Pyne | first=Stephen J. | year=2008 | title=Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 | location=Missoula, Montana | publisher=Mountain Press Publishing Company | isbn=978-0-87842-544-0 | pages=155–157, 175–176}} It remains the second deadliest incident in the history of firefighting in the United States, only being surpassed by the September 11 attacks.{{Cite web |title=Incidents resulting in the deaths of 8 or more firefighters {{!}} NFPA |url=https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/Emergency-Responders/Firefighter-fatalities-in-the-United-States/Deadliest-incidents-resulting-in-the-deaths-of-8-or-more-firefighters |access-date=January 22, 2023 |website=www.nfpa.org}}

Perhaps the most famous story of survival is that of Ranger Ed Pulaski, a U.S. Forest Service ranger who led a large crew of about 44 men to safety in an abandoned prospect mine outside of Wallace, Idaho, just as they were about to be overtaken by the fire. It is said that Pulaski fought off the flames at the mouth of the shaft until he passed out like the others. Around midnight, a man announced that he, at least, was getting out of there. Knowing that they would have no chance of survival if they ran, Pulaski drew his pistol, threatening to shoot the first person who tried to leave. In the end, all but five of the forty or so men survived.The Source https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/The-Source-Stephen-Pyne-Lecture.pdfThe Big Burn: Idaho and Montana, August 1910 part two {{cite web|url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4219853.html?page%3D2 |title=Big Burn – Big Blowup – Idaho and Montana – 1910 – Detailed History – Aftermath – Fire Fighting – Popular Mechanics |access-date=October 9, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090428133332/http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4219853.html?page=2 |archive-date=April 28, 2009 }} Pulaski has since been widely celebrated as a hero for his efforts; the mine tunnel in which he and his crew sheltered from the fire, now known as the Pulaski Tunnel, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

File:Wallace Idaho 1910 fire.jpg after the Big Blowup]]

Several towns were completely destroyed by the {{nowrap|1=fire:Kavenaugh, Laurie. – "On the Scene: Senior Artist Shares Hometown Tragedy". – Chico Enterprise-Record. – August 10, 2000.Geranios, Nicholas K. – "Current Fires Share Similarities with Fires of 1910". – Associated Press. – (c/o Lewiston Morning Tribune. – August 16, 2000.Kramer, Becky. – "A Region's Baptism of Fire". – The Spokesman-Review. – August 21, 2000.{{cite news |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/22/examining-legacy-1910-fires/ |work=Spokesman-Review |location=(Spokane, Washington) |last=Kramer |first=Becky |title=Examining the legacy of the 1910 fires |date=August 22, 2010 |access-date=June 21, 2017}}Landers, Rich. – "Wild Lands in Waiting". – The Spokesman-Review. – September 26, 2004.
—Landers, Rich. – "1910 Forest Fires Sparked Pulaski's Fame". – The Spokesman-Review. – July 2, 2006.{{cite news |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/20/great-fire-wiped-out-wild-towns-taft-grand-forks/ |work=Spokesman-Review |location=(Spokane, Washington) |last=Kershner |first=Jim |title=Great fire wiped out wild towns of Taft, Grand Forks |date=August 20, 2010 |access-date=June 21, 2017}}}}

• Idaho:
• Falcon
• Grand Forks
• Montana:
• De Borgia
• Haugan
• Henderson
• Taft
• Tuscor

In Idaho, one-third of the town of Wallace was burned to the ground, with an estimated $1 million in damage (equivalent to $31,490,000 in 2023). Passenger trains evacuated thousands of Wallace residents to Spokane and Missoula. Another train with 1,000 people from Avery took refuge in a tunnel after racing across a burning trestle.{{cite news |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/21/rail-route-tunnels-saved-lives-in-big-fire/ |work=Spokesman-Review |location=(Spokane, Washington) |last=Gidlund |first=Carl |title=Rail route tunnels saved lives in big fire |date=March 21, 2010 |access-date=June 21, 2017}} Other towns with severe damage included Burke, Kellogg, Murray, and Osburn, all in Idaho. The towns of Avery, Saltese (MT), as well as a major part of Wallace, were saved by backfires. Smoke from the fire reportedly traveled as far to the east as New York City, and as far south as Dallas.

File:Wallace 1910 Commemoration (5148626071).jpg

The Great Fire of 1910 cemented and shaped the U.S. Forest Service, which at the time was a newly established department on the verge of cancellation, facing opposition from mining and forestry interests.{{r|AmExp}} Before the epic conflagration, there were many debates about the best way to handle forest fires—whether to let them burn because they were a part of nature and were expensive to fight, or to fight them in order to protect the forests.

The Forest Service had instituted a policy of extinguishing all fires as quickly as possible in 1908. That strategy was called into question after the Great Fire, but Fire Chief Henry Graves, the second Chief Forester for the Forest Service, doubled down following the Big Burn, calling for a more aggressive fire prevention policy. He launched a campaign to remove fire from the landscape. His efforts would lead to the creation of the Weeks Act, which called for cooperation among federal, state and private agencies to address fire protection. The Weeks Act has been credited with saving nearly 20 million acres of forestland.{{Cite web|title=The Weeks Act|url=https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/the-weeks-act/|access-date=January 6, 2022|website=Forest History Society|language=en-US}}

One of the people who fought the fire, Ferdinand Silcox, went on to become the fifth chief of the Forest Service. Influenced by the devastation of the Big Burn, Silcox promoted the "10 a.m." policy, with the goal of suppressing all fires by 10 a.m. of the day following their report.{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=Jacob |title=The Best of Intentions|journal=Distillations |publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|date=2015 |volume=1|issue=2|pages=38–39 |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/the-best-of-intentions|access-date=March 23, 2018}} It was decided that the Forest Service was to prevent and battle every wildfire.{{cite web|title=The Big Burn: Idaho and Montana, August 1910 |website=popularmechanics.com|author= John Galvin|date= July 29, 2007|url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a1961/4219853}}

• Avery Depot, a train depot in Avery, Idaho used as an evacuation site
• Great Fire of Spokane City, 1889
• Baudette fire of 1910
• Pulaski, a firefighting tool later designed by and named for Ed Pulaski
• Yacolt Burn

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web |title=The Big Burn-Transcript |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/burn/ |website=American Experience |publisher=PBS |access-date=January 23, 2019 |date=February 3, 2015}}

}}

• Cohen, Steve, and Donald C. Miller (1978). The Big Burn: The Northwest's Forest Fire of 1910. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. {{OCLC search link|4493723}}
• Egan, Timothy (2009). The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. {{ISBN|0-618-96841-5}}
• [https://foresthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/When-the-Mountains-Roared.pdf "When the Mountains Roared: Stories of the 1910 Fire"]. Forest History Society.
• Spencer, Betty Goodwin (1956). The Big Blowup. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers. {{OCLC search link|2994642}}
• Pyne, Stephen (2001, 2008). Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. New York: Viking; Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Co. {{ISBN|978-087842544-0}}

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• [https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/policy-and-law/fire-u-s-forest-service/famous-fires/the-1910-fires/ The 1910 Fires], a history of the Great Fire of 1910 from the Forest History Society website
• [http://mineralcounty.info/1910Fire.htm "1910 Fire In Mineral County"] – Mineral County Historical Society, c/o Mineral County Information and Commerce

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Category:1910 fires in the United States

Category:Wildfires in Idaho

Category:Wildfires in Montana

Category:Wildfires in Washington (state)

Category:1910 in Idaho

Category:1910 in Montana

Category:1910 in Washington (state)

Category:1910 natural disasters in the United States

Category:1910s wildfires

Category:20th-century wildfires in the United States

Category:1910 disasters in Canada

Category:Wildfires in British Columbia