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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Bankey. Off the

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Speaker 1: coast of Alaska sit fourteen large volcanic islands and fifty

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Speaker 1: five smaller ones. Most of the territory belongs to the

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Speaker 1: United States and some to Russia. Known as the Aleutian Islands,

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Speaker 1: they act as a border between the Bering Sea and

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Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean. The islands form the northern part of

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Speaker 1: the Pacific Ring of Fire, where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

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Speaker 1: are likely to happen due to friction between the tectonic

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Speaker 1: plates below which created the islands in the first place.

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Speaker 1: Fifty seven volcanoes are dispersed throughout the islands. On April

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Speaker 1: one of nine, nearly everyone was sleeping when the eight

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Speaker 1: point six magnitude earthquake struck. The Alaskans reported no injuries,

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Speaker 1: and though it had shaken them, they went on with

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Speaker 1: their day. No one knew that the quake had caused

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Speaker 1: the ocean floor to rise, or that the real damage

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Speaker 1: was yet to come. Five hours later, and a hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty foot waves slammed into Unimac Island, taking out

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Speaker 1: everything in its path. It crushed the reinforced steel lighthouse,

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Speaker 1: sitting thirty feet above sea level. Inside were five people

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Speaker 1: on watch. They most likely saw the approaching wall of water,

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Speaker 1: but had no time to react and were killed instantly.

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Speaker 1: Two hundred miles to the south, twenty students and four

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Speaker 1: teachers combed the shoreline on Lapahoehoe Point, a beautiful peninsula

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Speaker 1: along the northeast shore of the island of Hawaii on

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Speaker 1: Hilo Bay. The tide had receded unlike anything that ever

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Speaker 1: seen before. Hundreds, if not thousands, of fish flopped around

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Speaker 1: on the sand, Boats were stranded. No one knew what

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Speaker 1: the fast preceding water meant. Unaware of the danger off shore,

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Speaker 1: the children delighted and picking up the vibrantly colored fish.

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Speaker 1: Teachers were puzzled, but didn't see any reason to worry.

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Speaker 1: Out in the Pacific, Captain Wickland of the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Navy saw the tsunami first, but despite his warning, Hilo

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Speaker 1: was unprepared. From his position on the bridge of the

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Speaker 1: ship and forty six ft above sea level, he had

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Speaker 1: a too close view of what he described as a

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Speaker 1: monster wave over two miles long. That wave and subsequent

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Speaker 1: surges destroyed a third of the city of Hilo. In

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Speaker 1: Low Pahoehoe, sixty ft waves slammed ashore where the children

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Speaker 1: scooped up the fish on the sand. It crushed the schoolhouse,

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Speaker 1: killing everyone inside. The waves even shoved a bridge three

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Speaker 1: hundred feet from the river it crossed. The waves as

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Speaker 1: tall as a thirteen story building were reported. Nine people

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Speaker 1: died on the island of Hawaii that day, and a

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Speaker 1: hundred fifty nine in the Hawaiian Islands combined. The property

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Speaker 1: damage reached twenty six million dollars worth over a quarter

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Speaker 1: of a billion. Today. In half Moon Bay, California, fourteen

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Speaker 1: foot surges pummeled the shoreline. In Santa Cruz, the surge

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Speaker 1: is killed a person, and as far away as Chile,

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Speaker 1: the waves damaged fishing boats. Despite technology that gives us

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Speaker 1: earlier warnings, we don't always look at the social disaster underneath,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes we ignore the signs altogether. I'm Lauren Vogelba.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to American Shadows. In early America, colonists looking for

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Speaker 1: a fresh start were drawn to Wisconsin's rich natural resources.

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Speaker 1: Immigrants tired of East Coast life and crowded cities where

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Speaker 1: the few jobs that could be found didn't pay fair

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Speaker 1: wages or treat them equally. Headed West, an abundance of

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Speaker 1: minerals and lumber austered several industries, presenting them with the

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Speaker 1: opportunities to make a good life. Mining had made Wisconsin

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Speaker 1: one of the primary sources of lead in the world,

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Speaker 1: though they also mined iron, zinc, and copper. Many found

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Speaker 1: the area the perfect place for farming, while others turned

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Speaker 1: to logging. It was a good life. The town of

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Speaker 1: Peshtigo in Mayrinett County sits just off the western shore

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Speaker 1: of Green Bay. While French colonists arrived in the area

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Speaker 1: in the late seventeen eighties, it wasn't until eighteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: when the first sawmill went into operation, that the town

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Speaker 1: became prosperous. Norwegian, Swedish, English, German, and Irish immigrants made

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Speaker 1: Peshtigo their home. The seemingly endless forests around Lake Michigan

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Speaker 1: were perfect for the hard woods that made houses, furniture,

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Speaker 1: and chips. The town's proximity to Chicago and railroads provided

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Speaker 1: the residents with a way to transport lumber and earn

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Speaker 1: a steady stream of income. It wasn't without risk, though,

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Speaker 1: The logging and lumber industry wasn't well regulated and safe

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Speaker 1: forestry practices were non existent. No care was taken on

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Speaker 1: what to cut down, and loggers stripped the land, leaving

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Speaker 1: underbrush to bake in the sun. Scraps and refuse were

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Speaker 1: dumped into tinder piles, making fires a constant threat. They

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Speaker 1: didn't change their practices, though, and in May of eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty nine, a fire broke out in nearby Ashland, killing

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Speaker 1: three people. The local papers reported that a spark from

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Speaker 1: a worker's pipe had ignited dry tinder on the docks.

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Speaker 1: Another fire broke out in the same town four years later,

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Speaker 1: killing four men. With the need for more lumber, paying

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Speaker 1: more railroads workers laying tracks took out large swaths of trees,

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Speaker 1: leaving them discarded and random piles nearby, and despite the fires,

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Speaker 1: no one gave it much thought. Like other cities and towns,

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Speaker 1: Peshtigo's buildings were made of wood with such an abundance

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Speaker 1: they even used wood chips to pave their streets. The

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Speaker 1: summer of eighteen seventy one had been one of the

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Speaker 1: hottest and driest summers on record. A few small wildfires

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Speaker 1: had started in the area, though as usual, no one

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Speaker 1: worried much, most of them fizzled out on their own.

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Speaker 1: That changed on October eighth, when strong winds started early

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Speaker 1: in the morning and continued most of the day. Residents

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Speaker 1: noticed the increase in dust and debris, making some of

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Speaker 1: them a bit nervous, while others scoffed at their concerns

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Speaker 1: and one about their day as usual. One of the

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Speaker 1: town seventeen hundred residents was father Peter Pernin, who had

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Speaker 1: moved Peshtigo in eighteen sixty nine. As he walked down

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Speaker 1: the street near his church that day, he passed children playing,

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Speaker 1: young couples walking, and townfolk out playing yard games with friends.

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Speaker 1: None gave the clouds of smoke billowing above the forest

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Speaker 1: tree tops a second glance. Such sites were a part

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Speaker 1: of life in logging communities. There had never been a

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Speaker 1: fire they hadn't handled. Though the townspeople were acting perfectly normal.

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Speaker 1: Pernan was uneasy, but he couldn't shake the feeling that

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Speaker 1: something darker loomed just over the horizon. He continued his

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Speaker 1: visits to his congregation up until around seven p m.

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Speaker 1: That evening. The wind that had been blowing earlier picked up.

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Speaker 1: The gusts felt stronger now, and more frequent. As he

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Speaker 1: walked back to his home, he couldn't help but realize

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Speaker 1: how quiet everything had become. No birds chirped or sang

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Speaker 1: in the fading light. He paused and listened. Then he

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Speaker 1: heard it, a faint roar off in the distance above

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Speaker 1: the tree line. Traces of red etched the sky. Despite

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Speaker 1: the town's calm demeanor and dismissal of the nearby fire,

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Speaker 1: he rushed home, certain that something terrible was about to happen.

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Speaker 1: When he reached his house, Pernan went to the stable

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Speaker 1: and set his horse loose once for he hoped the

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Speaker 1: animal's instincts would kick in and it would run off

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Speaker 1: to a safer place. Next, he began digging a trench

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Speaker 1: to bury his valuables. As he dug, the air became

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Speaker 1: increasingly oppressive, making breathing difficult. He kept digging anyway. After

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Speaker 1: a while, the silence gave way to the roar had

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Speaker 1: heard earlier. To him, it sounded like several trains approaching

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Speaker 1: a station in a thunderstorm. A crimson glow grew brighter

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Speaker 1: over the tree line. Pernin was about out of time.

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Speaker 1: He made several trips inside to fetch books, clothing, his

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Speaker 1: dog and some items from the church. When he looked

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Speaker 1: at the sky again, the fire was evident. With deafening pops,

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Speaker 1: Last sent sparks shooting into the sky. Convinced that the

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Speaker 1: air itself would catch fire, he set off to the river,

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Speaker 1: thinking that hurt a train, and knowing they never ran that.

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Speaker 1: Late at night, people stepped outside of their homes to

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Speaker 1: see what the noise was, Greeted by flames. They rushed

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Speaker 1: to action without taking in the breadth of the fire.

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Speaker 1: Women ran to get small children from their beds, while

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Speaker 1: men and boys set up a fire brigade. They had

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Speaker 1: a fire department, so to speak. It amounted to one horse,

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Speaker 1: a wagon and a steam pump, hardly sufficient for a

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Speaker 1: logging town. An ominous black cloud covered the evening sky,

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Speaker 1: blotting out the moon and stars. Ash fell like snow

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Speaker 1: with each gust of wind. Durton made it difficult to breathe.

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Speaker 1: The heat grew so intense that those fighting the fire

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Speaker 1: could hardly keep their eyes open. The wind swirled in

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Speaker 1: a virtual tornado of debris and flames. Realizing that fighting

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Speaker 1: the fire was futile, people fled towards the river. Some

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Speaker 1: panicked and ran off into the forest. The poor ability

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Speaker 1: caused people and wagons to collide on the roads. Some

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Speaker 1: of the residents became so overwhelmed and terrified they stood

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Speaker 1: paralyzed in the fire's path. A few ran to open fields,

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Speaker 1: thinking that would save them. The thick smoke overtook them

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Speaker 1: and they dropped to the ground, coughing and choking. Father

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Speaker 1: Pernan tripped over something and realized it was a body.

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Speaker 1: He got back to his feet and ran, passing people

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Speaker 1: who had taken refuge behind boulders. Determined to live, he

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Speaker 1: called to anyone who could hear him to follow his

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Speaker 1: voice to hurry to the river bank. He thought that

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Speaker 1: if they could reach the river banks and wet themselves

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Speaker 1: in water and mud, they might survive. On the other hand,

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Speaker 1: the way the wind carried the flames, he feared that

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Speaker 1: they might have to wade out into deeper water and

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Speaker 1: risk drowning in the current. The flames lapped at their heels.

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Speaker 1: Father Pernan briefly wondered if Judgment Day had come to Peshtigo.

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Speaker 1: When he reached the river, relief swept over him to

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Speaker 1: see people had already collected on the banks. Unfortunately, few

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Speaker 1: were in the water. Most stood in place. Confused, others

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Speaker 1: stared at the sky crying. They asked him if this

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Speaker 1: was their judgment to them, there simply wouldn't be any

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Speaker 1: reason to get into the water if God had sent

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Speaker 1: the fire, and the father's words of assurance that this

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Speaker 1: was not the end of the world seemed lost on

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Speaker 1: most of them. He began pushing them into the water.

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Speaker 1: Some were angry and complained bitterly about being soaked. Immersion

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Speaker 1: in water is better than immersion in fire, he shouted back.

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Speaker 1: As the fire continued to approach, he grabbed a few

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Speaker 1: of the townspeople and dragged them to deeper water. The

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Speaker 1: flames were so intense he could feel the heat of

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Speaker 1: it even through his wet, heavy clothes. The wind carried

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Speaker 1: pieces of fiery debris across the river, setting a flame

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Speaker 1: the dry leaves and felled trees there. Embers floated them,

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Speaker 1: catching several people's dry hair and clothes on fire. On shore.

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Speaker 1: People refused to get in the water. They insisted that

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Speaker 1: if God wanted them to die by fire, they would obey.

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Speaker 1: All he could do was call out to them and

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Speaker 1: the hopes that follow him and the others into the river.

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Speaker 1: With the heat so intense, survival instincts took over, and

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Speaker 1: they began to jump in and swim away from the shoreline.

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Speaker 1: Within a matter of minutes, the fire reached the river banks.

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Speaker 1: If they had waited any longer, they would have died.

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Speaker 1: A mother held her young child by the hand as

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Speaker 1: she checked the blanket in her arms. She screamed. The

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Speaker 1: blanket was empty. In the chaos, the baby she had

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Speaker 1: squaddled inside had slipped from her arms. As they ran

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Speaker 1: toward the river, Those who had made it this far

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Speaker 1: swam or waited until only their heads were above the water.

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Speaker 1: While that much should have granted them protection, it did not.

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Speaker 1: Flames streaked across the river banks. Father Pernin's fear of

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Speaker 1: the air catching fire seemed to have come true. The

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Speaker 1: townspeople continually dunked their heads to keep their hair from

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Speaker 1: catching fire. The temperature felt like hell itself. Anyone standing

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Speaker 1: up out of the water risked their hair or clothing catching.

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Speaker 1: The water grew thick with people and animals, and those

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Speaker 1: who couldn't swim drowned. By midnight, nothing existed on the

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Speaker 1: river banks. The entire forest on both sides was engulfed

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Speaker 1: in fire. Father Pernin looked towards the heavens, only to

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Speaker 1: see flames where the moon and stars had once been.

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Speaker 1: The phenomenon Pernin described has rarely been survivable. Experts say

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Speaker 1: the firestorm created something akin to a hurricane of fire,

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Speaker 1: with winds reaching a hundred miles an hour, and the

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Speaker 1: people in the river were in the eye of it.

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Speaker 1: The inferno had created a vortex, sucking the smoke higher

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Speaker 1: into the sky, leaving the air below bright with flames.

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Speaker 1: For five and a half hours. The survivors stayed in

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Speaker 1: the water. When the fires subsided, they bade their way

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Speaker 1: back to the shore. They huddled together on the river bank,

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Speaker 1: what hungry, injured, they waited for the earth to cool

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Speaker 1: down enough for them to return to what was once home.

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Speaker 1: On the outer fringes of town, rescue teams from nearby

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Speaker 1: found blackened posts, the fences that once held gone, an

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Speaker 1: iron railroad track spent and twisted. Nothing of the trains

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Speaker 1: endored except for their boilers. All that remained of the

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Speaker 1: church was a ball of melted metal that had once

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Speaker 1: been the bell. Inside the steeple, they discovered the bodies

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Speaker 1: of a family of five, having no chance of escape.

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Speaker 1: It appeared the father had cut his wife and children's throats,

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Speaker 1: and then taken his own life rather than have them

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Speaker 1: burned to death. In the area where the town tavern

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Speaker 1: had stood, they found the remains of some two hundred people.

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Speaker 1: They stumbled over the scorched earth toward an open area

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Speaker 1: where houses, barns, and trees had once stood. The fire

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Speaker 1: had burned so hot that sand had turned to glass.

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Speaker 1: Not a single tree remained. Holes and divots were the

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Speaker 1: only clues of where they had grown. The fire had

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Speaker 1: reduced the roots to ash. Beneath their feet lay a

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Speaker 1: trail of corpses so charred that identification was impossible. In

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Speaker 1: some cases, the bone fragments were indistinguishable from those of animals.

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Speaker 1: The survivors, those few who could still walk, made their

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Speaker 1: way toward the search teams, and most were barely clothed,

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Speaker 1: many burned. All were sooty, wet, and traumatized. That survived.

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Speaker 1: The unsurvivable others stayed on the shore, their blungs still struggling,

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Speaker 1: their throats swollen from breathing hot air and ash. Many

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Speaker 1: who had kept their eyes open were blind, some permanently.

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Speaker 1: Thick smoke lingered in the sky, eclipsing the sun. It

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Speaker 1: would be days before sunshine broke through. More rescue teams

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Speaker 1: arrived from the town of Marionette. They took the most

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Speaker 1: injured to their hospital and housed the less critical in

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Speaker 1: homes and hotels. Over the coming days and weeks, many

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Speaker 1: died from their injuries and sustained smoke inhalation. The many

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Speaker 1: who did survive suffered permanent heart, lung, skin, or eye damage. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: they returned to Peshtigo and rebuilt. They did their best

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Speaker 1: to collect the dead, without knowing who was who, or

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Speaker 1: even if they were burying people or animals. The town

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Speaker 1: folk decided on a single burial site and service. A

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Speaker 1: few logging and lumber businesses reinvested in Peshtigo, and the

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Speaker 1: town never re emerged as the epicenter it had once been.

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Speaker 1: A father, Pernan survived and even found some of the

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Speaker 1: valuable had buried were recoverable. Today they can be seen

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Speaker 1: in the Pestigo Fire Museum. He wrote a memoir about

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Speaker 1: the events of October eighth and ninth of eight one.

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Speaker 1: First published in his native French, it was translated to

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Speaker 1: English and remains an important part of the fire's history.

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Speaker 1: He titled it The Finger of God Is There While

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Speaker 1: the town rebuilt their church. Parnin moved on to Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: where he spent decades working with several churches, eventually becoming

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Speaker 1: the Vicar General, the local diocese, highest office after the bishop.

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Speaker 1: In his later years, after retirement from the church, he

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Speaker 1: became the resident chaplain of St. Mary's, now known as

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Speaker 1: the Mayo Clinic. Today, the small town of Pestigo is

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Speaker 1: home to just over thirty people. The Pestigo fire consumed

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Speaker 1: one point three million acres about four hundred square miles.

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Speaker 1: Historians think over a billion trees were likely destroyed. The

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Speaker 1: fire cut a swath through the forest ten miles wide

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Speaker 1: and forty miles long. Seventeen additional towns suffered damage and

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Speaker 1: loss of life, though Pastigo suffered the most. The fire

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Speaker 1: burned so hot it leveled the town to ash in

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Speaker 1: just two hours. Of the estimated twelve hundred residents, eight

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Speaker 1: hundred died that night alone. However, records indicate that another

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Speaker 1: twelve hundred railroad workers had arrived the day before, putting

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Speaker 1: the population two hundred, and even that number didn't account

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Speaker 1: for the travelers and businessmen who passed through regularly. As

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Speaker 1: father Pernan pointed out, the town never had an accurate

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Speaker 1: population count. The researchers have pieced together information that suggests

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Speaker 1: up to hundred people may have died from the fire

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Speaker 1: that swept through Pastigo and nearby towns. Throughout eighteen, wildfires

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Speaker 1: were reported across the Midwest. Michigan reported several large wildfires

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Speaker 1: that year, with an additional death poll of around five hundred.

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Speaker 1: But despite all that, you might be asking why you

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Speaker 1: haven't heard of the Pestigo fire before. Well, as it

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Speaker 1: turns out, just two hundred and fifty miles south, on

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Speaker 1: that very same night, another fire started that stole all

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Speaker 1: the headlines, the Great Chicago Fire, in which three hundred

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Speaker 1: people perished. Newspapers were quick to report about a disaster

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Speaker 1: in a booming metropolitan city over a rural logging community.

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Speaker 1: The damaged property and the economy in Chicago came to

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Speaker 1: some two hundred million. Pestigos came close at nearly a

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Speaker 1: hundred and seventy million, but even that didn't stoke the

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Speaker 1: media's interest. When word did break out, most of the

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Speaker 1: help had already been sent to Chicago, leaving Pestigo to

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Speaker 1: fend for itself. There was a story of a cow

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Speaker 1: owned by one Mrs O'Leary kicking over a lantern and

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Speaker 1: starting the Chicago fire, but it was later debunked years afterward.

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Speaker 1: The reporter who wrote the story admitted to fabricating the tail.

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Speaker 1: So what did start so many fires across them? In West?

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Speaker 1: In the Upper Midwest had had an unusually dry and

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Speaker 1: hot season. Added to that, people had become careless about

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Speaker 1: storing drag goods. As for the Peshtigo fire, their method

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Speaker 1: of harvesting timber and their lack of good forestry practices

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Speaker 1: were also to blame. Father Pernan admitted he was bitter

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Speaker 1: about the attention the Chicago fire received and how Peshtigo's

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Speaker 1: survivors were mostly overlooked, not by everyone, though. Francis Fairchild,

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Speaker 1: the wife of Wisconsin Governor Lucius Fairchild, was about to

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Speaker 1: come to Peshtigo's aid. Francis was aboard a train heading

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Speaker 1: to Chicago when she learned it was yet another train

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Speaker 1: full of food and other provisions slated for the victims

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Speaker 1: of the Chicago fire. She ordered the train stopped and

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Speaker 1: had the provisions allocated to Pshtigo instead. She also coordinated

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Speaker 1: a blanket and betting drive for the families. To this day,

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Speaker 1: the Peshtigo fire remains the deadliest fire in American history.

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Speaker 1: The death toll makes it the second largest of all

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Speaker 1: natural disasters in American history, behind only the Galveston Hurricane

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Speaker 1: in nine hundred. There's more to this story. Stick around

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Speaker 1: after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

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Speaker 1: The earthquake hit an hour before sunrise and lasted a

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Speaker 1: mere sixty seconds. Though short, the six point six quake

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Speaker 1: registered is the biggest to hit California in eighty years,

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Speaker 1: exceeded only by the San Francisco earthquake in nineteen o

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Speaker 1: six and the quake that struck Long Beach in three Still,

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Speaker 1: to the people living in the San Fernando area on

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Speaker 1: February nine, the quake was catastrophic. The earth shook so

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Speaker 1: violently that bridges were flattened, highways collapsed, and power stations

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Speaker 1: toppled over and down. Power lines sparked fires. The earthquake

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Speaker 1: traveled along the twelve mile fault zone under the San

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Speaker 1: Gabriel Mountains at six o one am and startled from

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Speaker 1: their sleep. People took cover as their homes rattled and shook.

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Speaker 1: The destruction continued to Los Angeles, where freeways crumbled, sewer

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Speaker 1: lines burst, and gas lines exploded, causing more fires. Phone

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Speaker 1: lines went out to making it impossible for residence to

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Speaker 1: call for help. In San Fernando, nurse Betty Vanda car

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Speaker 1: was just signing off the night that the Veterans Administration Hospital,

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Speaker 1: tired from a long overnight shift. Betty just wanted to

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Speaker 1: go home. When the quake hit, the entire Ward five

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Speaker 1: building and its inhabitants disappeared into the coal and dark morning.

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Speaker 1: Betty never forgot the site or the sound. The building

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Speaker 1: groaned and rumbled, then buckled and caved in built in

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Speaker 1: ninety six, the concrete wasn't reinforced. Forty four bodies were

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Speaker 1: recovered from the wreckage. Miraculously, a thousand people made it

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Speaker 1: out alive. When the nearby six story psychiatric Ward at

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Speaker 1: All of You Community Hospital collapsed, only three people were killed.

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Speaker 1: Three more hospitals suffered severe damage. Buildings fell onto roadways,

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Speaker 1: and overhead bridges collapsed onto the roads below. When the

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Speaker 1: quake stopped and the dust settled, people were injured and

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Speaker 1: sixty four were dead, nine from heart attacks. The monetary

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Speaker 1: damage exceeded just over five hundred and fifty million. For

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Speaker 1: weeks afterwards, survivors were left without water, gas, and power.

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Speaker 1: One resident recalled using camping gear for five weeks. He

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Speaker 1: considered himself lucky. Other families had none of those amenities.

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Speaker 1: The Salvation Army arrived with food, but residents were on

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Speaker 1: their own when it came to shelter. The reservoir keeper

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Speaker 1: for the lower San Fernando Dam tried to get out

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Speaker 1: of bed to check on his family when the quake struck,

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Speaker 1: though he could barely walk. When the tremors subsided, he

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Speaker 1: drove to the dam. To his horror, he found a

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Speaker 1: crack and alerted his superiors. The earthen dam had partially

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Speaker 1: liquefied and the top thirty feet of the structure had crumbled.

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Speaker 1: The San Fernando Dam held three point six billion gallons

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Speaker 1: of water. Directly below the dam were highly populated areas.

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Speaker 1: The seismologists and employees held their breath. With every aftershock,

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Speaker 1: chunks of earth fell away, bringing the water table closer

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Speaker 1: to the top of the dam. Police fanned out over

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Speaker 1: nine square miles from the reservoir to Ventura Highway in

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Speaker 1: an attempt to warn the residence to evacuate. Employees did

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Speaker 1: their best to shore up the cracks while strong winds

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Speaker 1: sent waves crashing along the rim. Fortunately, the dam held.

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Speaker 1: If it hadn't, seismologists estimate a hundred and twenty thousand

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Speaker 1: people would have drowned. Even today, no one knows why

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Speaker 1: the dam didn't collapse, which would have made the earthquake

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Speaker 1: the worst natural disaster in American history. Seismologists conclude that

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Speaker 1: had the quake lasted for another five to ten seconds,

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Speaker 1: history would have been significantly different. The twisted railroads and

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Speaker 1: collapsed roadways made recovery long and difficult. Out of the

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Speaker 1: rebel came changes, though. The reconstruction spurred new laws, and

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Speaker 1: Congress introduced new bills that established a national Earthquake Research program.

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Speaker 1: Although the quake wasn't what Californians referred to as the

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Speaker 1: Big One, it had been a call to action that

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Speaker 1: the nation didn't ignore. Previously, no one had paid much

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Speaker 1: attention to seismic activity, and when newer bill things and

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Speaker 1: roadways collapsed in the earthquake, it served as a wake

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Speaker 1: up call to city engineers and developers. The solid concrete,

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Speaker 1: they found out, and it wasn't flexible enough with stand

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Speaker 1: tremors and aftershocks. They also realized that building homes on

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Speaker 1: top of fault lines didn't end well. The quake scruptured

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Speaker 1: the surface, ripping through lawns and houses. Six years later,

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Speaker 1: in the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act passed, helping to establish

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Speaker 1: current earthquake safety standards. When it comes to quakes, at least,

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Speaker 1: it seems society has learned to pay attention to the

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Speaker 1: warning signs. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,

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Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive

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Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn

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Speaker 1: more about the show, visit grim and mild dot com.

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Speaker 1: From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. M