List of Michigan wildfires

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The Meridian Boundary Fire in 2010 burned 8,586 acres near Grayling, Michigan in 2010.

The U.S. state of Michigan has been the site of several major wildfires. The worst of these were in the lumbering era of the late-1800s when lumbering practices permitted the buildup of large slash piles and altered forest growth patterns which may have contributed to size of the wildfires. The scattered nature of settlements, lumber camps and Indian tribes during this time lead to large uncertainties in determining the number of deaths and property losses. More recent fires have been much smaller and contained by modern firefighting methods with better records of the destruction they caused. Almost all of the thousands of yearly fires in the state are only a few acres, although 100-200 homes are damaged each year by these small fires.[1]

Wildfires[]

Fire Date Location Size (acres) Size (km²) Damage Deaths Notes
Great Michigan Fires October 8, 1871 multiple locations over 1,500,000 over 6,000 thousands hundreds fires across Wisconsin, Michigan, and the cities of Holland, Manistee and Chicago
Port Huron Fire of 1871 October 8, 1871 The Thumb 1,200,000 4,850 thousands 50+ same day as Great Michigan fire
Peshtigo Fire October 8, 1871 Menominee County, Michigan hundreds of thousands hundreds thousands dozens[2] same day as The Great Chicago fire
Thumb Fire September 5, 1881 The Thumb 1,000,000 4,000 over 2,000 structures 282
October 15, 1908 Metz 300,000 1,200 hundreds of structures 37[3] 15 deaths occurred when the rescue train derailed in a burning lumber siding
August 1896 Ontanogan 228,000 923 hundreds 1 [4]
August - October, 1976 Seney National Wildlife Refuge 78,000 316 0 0 burned for months underground in peat
October 1896 Ishpeming 64,000 259 unknown unknown [5]
May 5, 1980 Mio 25,000 101 44 homes 1 [6]
Duck Lake fire May-June 2012 Luce County 21,000 85 136 structures 0
Sleeper Lake Fire August, 2007 Luce County 18,000 73 0 0
July 11, 1911 Iosco County thousands dozens hundreds 5+ Acreage burned unclear because of numerous fires burning the area that year[7]

See also[]

  • Flag of Michigan.svg Michigan portal

Gallery[]

  • Oscoda Fire of 1945

References[]

  1. ^ Wildfires and Firewise, Michigan State University, 02/03/2012
  2. ^ 21 dead listed by name from Birch Creek, near Menominee, JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Session, 1873, MADISON, WIS.
  3. ^ Metz Remembers, The Alpena News, Mike Modrzynski, October 12, 2008
  4. ^ The Forests of Michigan, Donald I. Dickmann, Larry A. Leefers, University of Michigan Press, 2003, p. 164
  5. ^ The Forests of Michigan, Donald I. Dickmann, Larry A. Leefers, University of Michigan Press, 2003, p. 165
  6. ^ Wildfire History, Michigan State University, 10/17/2011, accessed July 14, 2012
  7. ^ The Forests of Michigan, Donald I. Dickmann, Larry A. Leefers, University of Michigan Press, 2003, p. 168

Bibliography[]

  • Hanines, D. A.; Sando, R. W. (1969), Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires in the North Central Region (PDF), U.S.D.A. Forest Service Research Paper NC-34; see Figure 1.
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