September 11th terrorist attacks
The most devastating fire with multiple fatalities in United States history occurred on September 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City.
Initially, 2,666 deaths were reported. Government officials later revised that estimate to 2,976.
We will discuss the September 11 attacks in more detail in the next section on terrorism.
The SS Sultana explosion
The second worst fire in U.S. history occurred on April 27, 1865. The Sultana was a steamship designed to carry a maximum of 376 passengers at a time.
Due to the political events of the time, the ship was loaded with 2,137 newly released prisoners of war. This should never have happened – but some people, wanting to make as much money as possible by transporting the prisoners upriver, decided to ignore the regulations.
So when the boilers on board exploded, many, many more people died than would ever have been possible on board the boat.
In fact, the fact that the boat was overloaded in the first place was partly to blame for the water level problems that led to the boilers exploding.
A total of 1,547 deaths were registeredall completely avoidable. Even though the explosion was so catastrophic, no one was held legally responsible.
Peshtigo forest fire
The third largest fire in U.S. history occurred on October 8, 1871. Known as the Peshtigo Fire, it burned on the Door Peninsula in northeastern Wisconsin and extended into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It also spread across a portion of Wisconsin directly opposite the Door Peninsula.
During the course of the disaster, around 1,200,000 hectares of land burned and the death toll was estimated at around 1,152. There are some estimates that suggest this up to 2,500 people may have died. If true, it would rank just behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in terms of death toll from fires.
Coincidentally, the Great Chicago Fire also occurred on this day. Because it was a major urban disaster, the Chicago fire received far more attention than the Wisconsin fire, so most people were not even aware that the Wisconsin fire had started. Yet the Great Fire of Chicago doesn’t even make it into this top ten list. About 300 people died in that fire – fewer than the 361 fatalities in the 1907 coal mine explosion in Monongha, West Virginia, which ranks tenth on the list.
For more information about the remaining disasters on this list, see the graphic below.
