ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

California's Camp Fire is the deadliest US wildfire since Cloquet Fire of 1918

The Camp Fire in Northern California is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 100 years. Over the weekend, the death toll reached 76. A U.S. wildfire hasn't killed that many people since 1918 when 453 people died in northern Minnesota as a fire tore...

US-NEWS-CALIF-WILDFIRES-LA-20-CA.jpg
Smoke fills the sky as the Camp Fire continues to burn along the North Fork of the Feather River on Nov. 11, 2018. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

The Camp Fire in Northern California is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in 100 years.

Over the weekend, the death toll reached 76.

A U.S. wildfire hasn't killed that many people since 1918 when 453 people died in northern Minnesota as a fire tore through Moose Lake, Kettle River, Cloquet and Duluth.

Known as the Cloquet Fire, the blaze was ignited by train's sparks near Brookston on Oct. 10, 1918. By Oct. 12, the fire had destroyed Cloquet and reached townships north of Duluth, as well as the Woodland, Lakeside and Lester Park neighborhoods of Duluth.

In the end, 1,500 square miles were scorched, more than 11,000 houses and barns were destroyed and up to 52,000 people were affected - either injured or displaced.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the century since the Cloquet Fire of 1918, the 1933 Griffith Park Fire, which killed 29 people near Los Angeles, had been considered the deadliest U.S. wildfire.

The Camp Fire death toll surpassed that last week as searchers made their way through the Northern California town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire. More than 1,200 people remain missing.

The Peshtigo Fire of 1871, which killed between 1,200 and 2,500 people north of Green Bay, remains the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history.

What To Read Next
Get Local

ADVERTISEMENT