William Lutz
Autor von Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History
Über den Autor
William Lutz is a professor of English at Rutgers University, Camden. They live in Philadelphia.
Werke von William Lutz
Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History (2002) 230 Exemplare
Beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four: Doublespeak in a Post-Orwellian Age (1989) — Herausgeber — 12 Exemplare
Case Study: Who's Lying Anyway? 1 Exemplar
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- Rechtmäßiger Name
- Lutz, William Dennis
- Geburtstag
- 1940-12-12
- Geschlecht
- male
- Geburtsort
- Racine, Wisconsin, USA
- Berufe
- linguist
university professor emeritus - Organisationen
- Rutgers University, Camden
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- #41,002
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- 3.8
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- 32
This fire was part of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which was the main headlines in all the newspapers. It destroyed “America’s” town and killed around 300 people. Chicago boasted that this was the greatest fire in history; therefore, they received the majority of the news coverage.
But, the greater hell was in Peshtigo and the surrounding towns in Wisconsin where thousands of people lost their lives, survivors witnessed their loved ones, friends and neighbors burned alive in an instant. And those who made it to the river, burned and drowned in the river. Those who walked out of the river were badly burned. Of Peshtigo's 2000 residents, approximately 1,800 of them died on that day. All their stories are collected in these pages. Plus, more people died in the surrounding towns. The exact number of people who died will never be known. Charred remains were found even a few years after the fire. There was no official count ever taken.
It was always snowing ashes from the fires all around. The people were somewhat accustomed to this kind of atmosphere. In 1871, new arrivals were constantly clearing their land and burning the timber. This created a constant haze of smoke polluted air. Citizens walked around with hankies over their noses and mouths. They were constantly fighting off small fires that ignited here and there and were only a little more concerned when the snow of ash became so heavy, one couldn’t see their neighbors face. This was the norm for the lumber mill town of Peshtigo.
What they couldn’t see was the sleeping giant burning between Chicago and Michigan. When the low pressure from Galveston and the cold front from Canada merged over Lake Michigan area, it turned all the clearing fires and other surrounding raging fires into one great firestorm, much like an atomic bomb, with temperatures reaching up to at least 1800 degrees and fire tornadoes with speeds up to 100 mph.… (mehr)