North America Fire

On August 19, 1910 the Big Burn in the Rocky Moutains began, recorded as the largest and most destrustive fire, in North America. At the time the United States fire service was only five years old, with very little experience and preparation to handle such a large forest fire. It destroys an area the size of Connecticut within a matter of 36 hours, equaling more than three-million acres of forest, and $1 billion worth lost in timber. There were atleast 78 firefighter fatalities, however it is unknown how many more died soon afterwards, due to the effects of smoke inhalation and other long term side effects. During that summer the weather was extremely dry, and without any rain for 3 months many small sparatic fires began to appear, quickly growing with all the available dried fuel.
When all of a sudden a thunderous electrical storm began that fateful evening, and within only a few hours, nearly one thousand fires formed across the Northern Rockies. As the fires traveled up trees, strong winds carried hot embers and flaming debris, as well as fueling it even more with the flow of oxygen, quickly igniting any building in the way. When the firefighter crews where not large enough to tackle the multiplying fires immigrants were then collected, as well as anyone else desperate enough to do the job. As the fires continued to grow even larger prisons began to release about four-thousand prisoners, but it was still not enough, so President Taft eventually sent out four thousand Buffalo Soldier troops. However the Buffalo Soldiers were mainly all African Americans, in a very white population, experiencing much racial