10 of History's Deadliest Wildfires

Forest fires have become an annual disaster occurring worldwide. While wildfires occur naturally, they can also destroy homes and surrounding agricultural lands.

Common causes of forest fires include lightning, human actions, and intentional burning.

History records 10 of the deadliest forest fires globally, including those in Indonesia. Based on data from alltopeverything.com, the following are some of the deadliest forest fires in the world:

1. Peshtigo Fire (1871) – 1,500 deaths
2. Great Michigan Fire (1871) – 482 deaths
3. Cloquet Fire (1918) – 453 deaths
4. Hinckley Fire (1894) – 418 deaths
5. Great Chicago Fire (1871) – 290 deaths
6. Thumb Fire (1881) – 282 deaths
7. Indonesian Forest Fire (1998) – 240 deaths
8. Black Dragon Fire (1987) – 191 deaths
9. Black Saturday Bushfires (2009) – 173 deaths
10. Attica Fire (2018) – 102 deaths

The Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest in human history, killing 1,500 people. This fire occurred on October 8, 1871, when the entire Great Lakes region was affected by large fires that spread across the US states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois.

The flames were so intense that they reached temperatures of 1,093 degrees Celsius. The fire consumed over 3.5 million hectares of forest land in a single night. Estimated damage reached approximately USD 169 million or Rp 2.4 trillion.

Forest fires in Indonesia are also among the deadliest in the world. The resulting fires have had a global impact. Haze spread to Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and parts of Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and northern Australia.

(Read More: 38,665 Hectares of Conservation Forest Burned in 2021)