As smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets northern Michigan, concerns are mounting over potential long-term health effec ...

A truck sits in the garage at the Battle Creek Fire Department. Responding to smoke and flames coming from the rear of a two-story house on Union Street near Sherman Road, Battle Creek Fire ...

Despite nearly 150 years separating them, the 19th-century Thumb-area fire and the California fires of January 2025 feature many commonalities, one historian of firefighting points out.

One historian says that Michigan’s Great Fire of 1881 in some ways still burns, offering lessons about how to prevent future fires as drought and other conditions make blazes more likely.

A fire alert is in effect for Michigan's Thumb as the state remains abnormally dry, according to the National Weather Service in White Lake. The alert, which is seldom issued, is an attempt to ...

"To those who have seen, the picture needs no painting." Great Fire of 1881 This is one of several drawings of the Great Thumb Fire of 1881 that appeared in national magazines of the era.

The worst of the fires burned for at least three days, starting Sept. 5, 1881 and made national news.