The Thumb Fire took place on September 5, 1881, in the Thumb area of Michigan in the United States. The fire, which burned over a million acres (4,000 km²) in less than a day, was the consequence of drought, hurricane-force winds, heat, the after-effects of the

Port Huron Fire of 1871 The Port Huron Fire of October 8, 1871 (one of a series of fires known collectively as the Great Fire of 1871 or the Great Michigan Fire) burned a number of cities including White Rock and Port Huron, and much of the countryside in the " Thumb" ...

, and the ecological damage wrought by the era's

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

techniques. The blaze, also called the Great Thumb Fire, the Great Forest Fire of 1881 and the Huron Fire, killed 282 people in Sanilac, Lapeer, Tuscola and Huron counties. The damage estimate was $2,347,000 in 1881, equivalent to $ when adjusted for inflation. The fire sent enough soot and ash up into the atmosphere that sunlight was partially obscured at many locations on the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

. In New England cities, the sky appeared yellow and projected a strange luminosity onto buildings and vegetation. Twilight appeared at 12 noon. September 6, 1881, became known as ''Yellow Tuesday'' or ''Yellow Day'' because of the ominous nature of this atmospheric event.Yellow Day
at CelebrateBoston.com

History

August and the first days of September 1881 were hotter than usual, and the Thumb had had a rain deficit since April; in Thornville, this period was the driest registered up to 1969. There were forest fires beginning in mid-August, and on August 31, a fire started in northern Lapeer County. It destroyed several buildings in Sandusky and Deckerville in nearby Sanilac County. On Monday, September 5, the town of Bad Axe, in Huron County, burst into flames. Winds spread the fire to Huron City and Grindstone City. The fire continued to spread through Tuesday and Wednesday, September 6 and 7, consuming most of Huron, Tuscola, Sanilac and Lapeer counties.

Relief aid

In 1881

Clara Barton Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very ...

, at the age of 60, founded the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

. The organization's first official disaster relief operation was its response to the Michigan "Thumb Fire" of 1881. The Red Cross provided money, clothes and household items.Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross
Retrieved 2011-01-30. The fire caused more than 14,000 people to be dependent on public aid. It also destroyed over 2,000 barns, dwellings, and schools.

Fire protection

After the fires of 1881, people started to organize

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

plans. By the 1900s the timber barons were suffering huge losses from forest fires, so they developed the Northern Forest and Protection Association to manage forest fires in Michigan; it was superseded by the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

.Sodders, Betty (1997). ''Michigan on Fire'', pp. 239–40. Thunder Bay Press. However, the Ford Motor Company, which owned large areas of forest, had already established serious conservation and cleanup methods, along with maintaining their own firetowers and timber patrols, in order to discover fires soon after their start. The early settlers used bucket brigades to protect their houses and barns, but they were no match for the raging fires. In 1917, Michigan purchased its first tractor for firefighting.

References

Sources

* “Clara Barton: Founder of the American Red Cross”. American Red Cross Museum. Oct. 12, 2007 * Haines, Donald A., & Sando, Rodney W., 1969: ''Climatic Conditions Preceding Historical Great Fires in the North Central Region.'' North Central Experimentation Forest Service; US Department of Agriculture. * Nesbit, Joanne. “Michigan History Series”. U-M News and Information Services.Aug. 29, 1996. Oct. 10, 2007 * Sodders, Betty (1997). ''Michigan on Fire''. Thunder Bay Press.

External links