5
Firestorms

As deadly and destructive as this blaze is, it cannot compare to the fury of a fire storm. A true firestorm is so intense that fire fighters have no effect on it. It destroys everything and everyone nearby, and it burns until nothing is left to burn. Luckily, a firestorm occurs only under special conditions.

Legend says that it all began with a cow. On October 8,1871, Mrs. O'Leary's cow knocked over a lantern in a barn. A fire broke out. Soon most of Chicago was going up in flames. The damage was immense. Fire destroyed more than two thousand acres of the city. More than one hundred thousand people lost their homes. About 300 people died in the inferno. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 shocked the nation. It became the most famous fire in American history.

And yet, on the same day, there was a fire in Wisconsin that was even worse. People did not hear about this second fire right away. The Great Chicago Fire was the hot news story of the day. Besides, the second fire took place in the small lumber town of Peshtigo. It took several days for word from this town to reach the outside world.

Peshtigo had seen plenty of fires before. Dense woods surrounded the town. Brush fires often broke out. The people of Peshtigo knew how to deal with them. This fire, though, was impossible to control. About 9:30 P.M., someone saw a dull red glow in the distance.That was followed by a low rumbling sound.Everyone in town knew exactly what that meant. The men jumped into action. The women got the children out of bed and dressed them. By 10 o'clock,the woods had turned bright crimson as flames leaped from tree to tree. Sparks flew everywhere. Soon the blaze reached the town itself. The wooden sidewalks caught fire.Sawdust used in the streets to keep the dust down also burst into flames. The angry blaze engulfed one building after another.

There was no hope of stopping the fire. The people just tried to save themselves. Some sought shelter in large buildings. But as the buildings went up in flames, most of these people burned to death. Others drowned after leaping into the river. Three people jumped into a large water tank at a sawmill.But even they did not survive.The fire turned the water so hot that everyone in the tank died.

The Peshtigo fire destroyed every building in town. About 800 people died. That was 500 more people than the Great Chicago Fire killed. In terms of lost lives, then, the Peshtigo fire was much worse than the one in Chicago.

The fame of the Chicago fire is well earned. It was, after all, a truly massive blaze. But it was a regular fire. The one in Peshtigo, on the other hand, was a rare kind of fire. It was actually a “firestorm.”People who survived it talked of winds that were “tornado-like.”They said balls of fire seemed to jump out of nowhere. These balls appeared and disappeared like lightning.

What is the difference between a normal fire and a firestorm? A normal fire is largely controlled by the weather. High winds can fan the flames. In fact, strong, gusty winds did help to spread the Chicago fire. Similarly, a heavy rain can douse a normal fire. For example, rain often checks forest fires. A firestorm, on the other hand, creates its own weather. It makes its own wind and rain. A firestorm can make rain fall and lightning flash even on a sunny day. It can create small tornadoes, or whirls, filled with fire and deadly gases. These little weather systems grow inside a plume of smoke that rises high above the ground.

Firestorms are rare. The conditions have to be just right to create one.First,the fire must be really hot.That means having lots of fuel such as dry wood, sawdust,twigs, or brush. Second, the winds in the area must be weak. A strong wind would blow the rising smoke across the land and keep a plume from developing. Third, the air must be fairly warm. Warm air forms currents that rise into the upper atmosphere. Cold air sinks. Cold air would press down on the plume and keep it from growing.

If the conditions are met, watch out. A billowing plume develops. It carries heat, smoke, ash, and gases higher and higher. Within this plume, the wind whips around at very high speeds. This wind turns into small but deadly tornadoes. The tornadoes can be as high as 400 feet and as wide as 50 feet. They travel at speeds of just six or seven miles an hour. But it's hard to tell where they'll go next.

As the plume rises, moisture in the air starts to condense on the ash and smoke particles. This creates a cloud that looks like a towering black storm cloud. A 1993 firestorm in Santa Barbara, California, created such a cloud. It reached 38,000 feet. That's almost two miles higher than Mount Everest!

As the cloud grows, more and more moisture condenses on the ash and smoke particles. Soon rain starts to fall. In that way, a firestorm creates its own rainfall. The Santa Barbara firestorm produced lightning and almost half an inch of rain. But such rain rarely puts out the fire. One reason is that the plume doesn't stay perfectly straight. The upper part, where the rain forms, drifts slowly away from the source of the fire. So the rain doesn't fall on the fire itself. As a result, most firestorms don't put themselves out. They die only when their fuel supply runs out.