|
|
|
|
A Storm of Fire
Mon Nov 28, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
In 1894 a storm of fire rained down upon the town of Hinkley, Minnesota, about 70 miles north of Minneapolis. And a devastating storm, it was. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook.
Jeanne Coffey is Executive Director of the Hinckley Fire Museum. She says that loggers had provided the fuel.
That summer had been one of the driest on record. They just wanted the straight part of the tree for building materials. The slash, as it was called, the tops and the branches, just was left laying on the ground.
Coffey says that two existing fires joined together, and coupled with a big temperature inversion, the scene was set to explode.
Cool air kind of started funneling down into the fire and started what’s known as a firestorm. A firestorm isn’t a wildfire, it isn’t a forest fire; a firestorm is like a cyclone or a tornado fire. The Hinckley Fire actually wiped out six towns altogether. There was nothing left. It not only destroyed the buildings, it destroyed the very earth. There were places where the soil was burned right down to the rock.
BY: And how many people were killed?
JC: The death toll was 418. However, they were finding people up to 5 years later, and burying them where they found them. So, the death toll was probably more like 600.
BY: Is the rain what eventually stopped the fire? Or did it just run out of fuel?
JC: No, no; it just ran out of fuel.
Coffey likens the recovery of Hinckley with modern disasters, like Hurricane Katrina.
They were real industrious people I think, and they did rebuild the town—they rebuilt all the towns—and the railroads prospered, and life went on.
The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru of America.
Today's Links
Firestorm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm
Hinckley Fire Museum
www.sunsetweb.com/hinckley/
|
|
