The Peshtigo Fire - Craig J. Hansen

A rider approached from up over the hill
He looked like he had something to say
We’ve been watching a glow in the western sky
He said, a fire is on its way.

A mountain of smoke covered the night sky
Towering over the hill
Now embers rose like stars in the sky
The heat of it frightens me still.

Chorus
The fire that night was so fast and so wide
When it was over 2000 had died
Few had escaped and so many had tried.
The Peshtigo fire.

The fire had started deep in the Wisconsin woods
And burned to the edge of Green Bay
Few people learned of the terrible loss
With the great Chicago fire that same day.

We fled for the train, my family and I
On its last ever trip out of town
Heat blistered the paint as we clambered aboard
With the roaring of flames all around.

Some found the river a place to survive
Many found it only a grave
The train engineer, now barely alive
Pulled away with the last to be saved.

Eight counties burned on that October night
In 1871
Of all the wildfires this nation has seen
This still is the deadliest one.