The September 11 terrorist attacks
The worst fire in the history of the United States occurred on September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York.
Initially, 2,666 deaths were registered. State officials later revised that estimate to 2,976.
We will cover the 9/11 attacks in more detail in the next section on terrorism.
The explosion of the SS Sultana
The second deadliest fire in US history occurred in 1865. on April 27. The Sultana was a steamship that was supposed to carry a maximum of 376 passengers at a time.
Due to political events at the time, the ship was loaded with 2,137 recently released prisoners of war. This should never have happened, but some people who wanted to make as much money as possible by taking prisoners up the river decided to ignore the regulations.
So when the boilers on board exploded, many, many more people died than should ever have been possible on board.
Indeed, the fact that the ship was overloaded to begin with was actually part of what led to the water level problems that caused the boilers to explode.
A total of 1,547 deaths were reportedall are completely preventable. Despite the catastrophic nature of the explosion, no one was legally responsible.
Peshtigo forest fire
The third deadliest fire in US history occurred on October 8, 1871. The fire, known as the Peshtigo fire, burned on the Door Peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin, extending into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It also spread over a portion of Wisconsin just across the water from Door Peninsula.
About 1,200,000 acres were burned during the disaster, and the death toll was estimated at 1,152. There are some estimates that suggest this up to 2,500 people may have died. If true, it would put it right behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in terms of fire-related deaths.
Coincidentally, the Great Chicago Fire also happened on that day. Being a major urban disaster, the Chicago fire received much more attention than the Wisconsin fire, to the point that most people are not even aware that the WI fire happened. However, the Great Chicago Fire doesn’t even make the top ten. About 300 people died in that fire, fewer than the 361 deaths recorded in a 1907 coal mine explosion in Mononga, Washington, which ranks tenth on the list.
You can learn more about the rest of the disasters on this list by looking at the graphic below.
