1916 Matheson fire | |
|---|---|
| Total costs | N/A |
| Deaths | 223 |
The great Matheson Fire was a deadly forest fire that passed through the region surrounding the communities of Black River-Matheson and Iroquois Falls, Ontario, Canada, on July 29, 1916. As was common practice at the time, settlers cleared land using the slash-and-burn method. That summer, there was little rain, and the forests and underbrush burned easily. In the days leading up to July 29, several smaller fires that had been purposely set merged into a single large firestorm. It was huge; at times its front measured 64 kilometres (40 mi) across. The fire moved uncontrollably upon the towns of Porquis Junction, Iroquois Falls, Kelso, Nushka, Matheson, and Ramore, destroying them completely and causing extensive damage to Homer and Monteith. A separate fire burned in and around Cochrane. In all, the fires burned an area of approximately 2,000 square kilometres (490,000 acres). Because of forest fire smoke that had covered the region for several weeks and the absence of a forest fire monitoring service, there was almost no warning that the conflagration was upon the communities. Some people escaped on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (now the Ontario Northland Railway), while others were saved by wading into the nearby Black River or one of the small lakes in the area. 223 people were killed according to the official estimate.The Matheson Fire led to the creation of the Forest Protection Branch of the Department of Lands, Forests, and Mines (now known as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) and the Forest Fires Prevention Act in Ontario.The great fires are the subject of the books Killer in the Bush by Michael Barnes, and Il pleuvait des oiseaux by Jocelyne Saucier.
Source: Wikipedia 1912 Bangladesh Cyclone | |
|---|---|
| Total costs | N/A |
| Deaths | 40000 |
The following is a list of tropical cyclones by year. Since the year 957, there have been at least 12,791 recorded tropical or subtropical cyclones in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, which are known as basins. Collectively, tropical cyclones caused more than US$1.2 trillion in damage, unadjusted for inflation, and have killed more than 2.6 million people. Most of these deaths were caused by a few deadly cyclones, including the 1881 Haiphong typhoon, the 1931 Shanghai typhoon, the 1970 Bhola cyclone, Typhoon Nina in 1975, the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, and Cyclone Nargis in 2008. In the North Atlantic Ocean, there have been 2,462 tropical cyclones, including at least 1,150 hurricanes, which have maximum sustained winds of at least 64 knots (74 mph, 119 km/h). The storms collectively killed more than 180,000 people. In the eastern Pacific Ocean, there have been 1,313 tropical cyclones, including 552 hurricanes; the storms collectively killed 8,467 people. In the western Pacific Ocean, there have been 4,648 tropical cyclones, including at least 1,485 typhoons; the storms collectively killed more than 1.4 million people. In the North Indian Ocean, there have been at least 1,551 tropical cyclones, including 262 that attained the equivalent of hurricane status; the storms collectively killed over 1 million people. There have been at least 2,768 tropical cyclones in the Southern Hemisphere. Storms with an asterisk (*) originated in another basin.
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