Wallace Idaho (Wiki)

Peshtigo burned in 1871 and Lahaina in 2023, and the fires between them changed how Americans think about evacuation and public relief during forest fires. Determining the deadliest wildfire disasters in US history is not as simple as counting death tolls. Records from the 1800s are incomplete, estimates vary, and some familiar names refer to a single fire, while others encompass dozens of fires burning across a region. Modern disasters also blur the boundary between a wildfire and an urban conflagration: vegetation may carry the flames into a community, but buildings can then become the principal fuel. The fires below are US wildland and wildland-urban disasters that were exceptionally deadly or historically consequential, presented in chronological order. These forest fires show how dangerous fire becomes when drought, wind, abundant fuel, and limited escape routes converge.