CLOQUET, Minn. — The heartwrenching disaster in Maui is conjuring up memories of a dark time in Minnesota history.
Back in 1918, the Cloquet fire claimed more than 450 lives in northern Minnesota. It's the largest natural disaster the state has ever experienced, and it is one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history. The region was experiencing tinder-dry conditions, and a spark from a passing train lit the fuse for the deadly fire.
"People were building futures, homes, towns and businesses and the fire wiped them out," Dan Reed said.
Fifty years ago, Reed interviewed surviving fire victims for a book on the Cloquet fire. He says he will never forget their stories about running from the flames. Some people crawled into their cellars and were trapped by the flames. Others tried to drive away or run into area lakes, just as some residents of Lahaina ran into the ocean in Hawaii.
"If the fire decided to kill you, it would. If it wanted to let you go, it would," Reed said.
The 1918 Cloquet fire was a series of fires that burned for weeks through Duluth, Moose Lake, Cloquet and Kettle River. It destroyed 38 communities and blackened 250,000 acres, fueled and pushed by 76 mph winds. Many of those who survived packed up and left the region, never to return.
"I always think of my grandmother's line, she said 'we came here to live, not to die,'"Reed recalled.
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