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The Big Burn of 1910 By Joyce Furstenau

1 Caption: A lone building still stands in Wallace, , after the fire.

2 "Our shoes were burned off our feet, and our clothes were in parched rags." This is the way one firefighter described a scene from the Big Burn of 1910. The Big Burn, or the Great Fire of 1910, occurred on August 20 and 21 of 1910. It was a forest fire that burned three million acres of forest in northeast , western , and northern Idaho. This fire changed the way all future forest fires were fought. It was the greatest forest fire on record for the Rocky Mountains.

3 It had been a long, rainless summer. It was the hottest summer on record. The forests were dry. June brought lightning storms, which started several small fires along the Salmon River near the Canadian border. Smoke filtered the sunlight the rest of the season. By the end of July there were nearly ninety fires burning near the mountains in Idaho and Montana. Firefighters were in short supply. Finally, the military was called in to assist.

4 Troops were sent to the front lines of the fires in towns like Wallace, Idaho. It seemed the best they could do was keep the fires contained. Everyone was near exhaustion when the forest exploded on August 20th. A cold front had created 75 mph winds. The winds whipped the ninety small fires into one big inferno. The men working at the edges of one of the smaller fires described the sound as "a distant waterfall." What they actually heard was the sound of the fire rushing toward them.

5 Twenty-eight men died trying to outrun the flames at Seltzer Creek (Idaho). Eighteen men died after they tried to take shelter in a cabin. The roof caught fire, and they died in a heap as they tried to escape. A 50-person crew took refuge by diving facedown in a nearby creek. The fire burned the skin on the backs of their necks. A falling tree killed three of them.

6 The defining moment of the Big Burn of 1910 surrounded the story of forest ranger Edward . The townspeople of Wallace, Idaho, had set backfires in an attempt to control the blaze. Pulaski and his men were caught between the two fires. He ordered his crew of about 45 firefighters into an abandoned mineshaft. As the fire lapped at the mine's entrance, Pulaski covered the opening with blankets. He tried to fight the fire with his bare hands, but Pulaski and his crew were overcome with smoke. They lay unconscious in the mineshaft until one firefighter woke up and went for help. Five of these men died, but the rest made it.

7 By the morning of August 21, the fire had destroyed one-third of Wallace, Idaho. Grand Forks, Idaho, was completely destroyed. Four more towns in Montana had been burned to the ground. The fire sent smoke so far west that sailors on the Pacific Ocean saw it. Two days later, a rainstorm accomplished what the firefighters could not. The rain extinguished the fires.

8 All told, 78 firefighters and seven civilians lost their lives in the Big Burn. The destruction caused by the Big Burn of 1910 was the stimulus that created a new anti-fire policy in the Forest Service. By 1935, the U.S. Forest Service had its own army to fight fires. It trained ground troops to dig trenches and set backfires. It also trained elite smoke jumpers to parachute into remote areas. The Forest Service also added its own helicopters and airplane spotters.

9 There are lessons to be learned from natural disasters, and this fire was no exception. Edward Pulaski recovered from his injuries. He went on to develop a special hand tool for fighting fires: the Pulaski tool. It is used in wild land firefighting. It has proven to be a most useful tool for constructing https://teacherworksheets.edhelper.com/cgi-bin/vspec.cgi?FORMMODE=RC30_1368_1&QUICK=1 1/6 8/10/2020 https://teacherworksheets.edhelper.com/cgi-bin/vspec.cgi?FORMMODE=RC30_1368_1&QUICK=1 firebreaks. It can also dig soil and chop wood. A land management plan is also in place today to decide which forest fires should be fought and which should be allowed to burn so that forests can be thinned naturally.

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Name ______Date ______The Big Burn of 1910

1. Where did the Big Burn of 1910 take place? 2. In what season of the year was the Big Burn In the mountains of Washington, Idaho, of 1910? and Montana Autumn In the mountains of Washington, Spring California, and Oregon Winter In the mountains of Oregon and Summer California In the mountains of Utah, , and Wyoming 3. What was one event that started some of the 4. How many men lost their lives at Seltzer fires? Creek? A gas lantern tipped over Lightning Wet hay bales A motorcycle spark 5. How many acres of forestland were destroyed 6. How many people all together lost their lives by the Big Burn? in this disaster? (You'll have to do the math.)

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