1918 Cloquet Fire

The 1918 Cloquet fire was a massive fire in northern Minnesota, United States in October, 1918, caused by sparks on the local railroads and dry conditions. The fire left much of western Carlton County devastated, mostly affecting Moose Lake, Cloquet, andKettle River. Cloquet was hit the hardest by the fires. It was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day. In total, 453 lives were lost and 52,000 people were injured or displaced, 38 communities were destroyed, 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) were burned, and $73 million (US$ 1.145 billion in 2015) in property damage was suffered. Thirteen million dollars in Federal aid was disbursed.

Many instances of mass deaths were reported. For example, in Moose Lake, an Associated Press Correspondent reported seeing seventy-five bodies piled in a burned building. On a road leading out of Moose Lake, "100 bodies were strewn here and there", according to The New York Times. A relief worker reported that there were thirty bodies piled in a heap in a cellar between Moose Lake and Kettle River.

Among other structures, the Duluth Country Club and the Children's Home were both a complete loss. Within Carlton and southern Saint Louis counties the towns of Brookston, Arnold, and Moose Lake were completely destroyed.Cloquet and its surrounding cities were known for the great deforestation caused by the fire.

On October 10, 1918, two men working near a railroad siding northwest of Cloquet saw a passenger train pass by the siding, and soon thereafter discovered a fire burning through grass and piles of wood. The fire could not be contained, and by October 12, fires had spread through northern Minnesota.

When asked about the scene at Cloquet after the fact, Albert Michaud, a special Police Officer in Cloquet was quoted by The New York Times,

“ "At 6 o'clock last night, a forest ranger gave warning that unless the wind died down the townspeople would have to flee...The scene at the station was indescribable. There came a rush of wind and the entire town was in flames. The trains pulled out with the fires blazing closely behind them. Women wept and clung to their children, while others cried frantically for their missing ones. The flames licked at the cars. Windows in the coaches were broken by the heat. The engineers and firemen alternately stoked, to give the boilers all the fuel they could stand."

Early reports of the fire circulated rumors that the fires were intentionally started by "enemy agents", but Cloquet Fire Chief F.J. Longren later confirmed that such rumors were false. One cause of the fire is believed to be from sparks from the railroad tracks that lit the dry timber, but the rapid progression of the fire through northern Minnesota was caused by factors such as drought conditions, high winds, and a lack of firefighting equipment.