[Conan the Librarian]

My theory all along. (Well a comet or Meteor) I am glad the scientic community is finally coming round to my way of thinking. If they had only done so sooner :)

Seriously, I did see a show about this about 8 years ago that made a whole lot of sense.

[Charles Henrickson]

Growing up in the city of Chicago at a time when there were still people around who remembered the Great Fire of 1871, obviously I heard a lot about it.

It had been a very dry summer and autumn--both in Chicago and up near Peshtigo, where the Wisconsin fire started. Dry wood houses and dry forests were tinderboxes ready to burst into flames. That two major fires occurred close in time in the same dry region should not be considered too unusual. This is not to rule out the comet theory, but to say that the two fires could have easily been caused by more common means.