America's deadliest wildfire burned the same night as the Chicago Fire

On 8 October 1871 a firestorm swept through Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and surrounding settlements, killing an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 people in a few hours. It remains the deadliest wildfire in US history, with winds strong enough to hurl flaming debris across a wide river and leap whole towns. It struck the very same night as the Great Chicago Fire, which killed far fewer people but, because it hit a major city, became the one everyone remembers.

— Denise Gess and William Lutz, Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History — 2003
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