[supercat]

There's a tendency ~ a rather strong one ~ for news media of all kinds to AVOID doing stories on places that are totally destroyed.

IIRC, on the day of the Chicago fire, a fire struck a Wisconsin town with even more deadly effect and yet less was written of it at the time.

[Fred Nerks]

On the evening of October 8, 1871 devastating fires erupted at virtually the same moment in three different states in the region of the Great Lakes—Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan. The outbursts included the notorious “Chicago fire”, but also an even more devastating fire in Wisconsin, the worst in U.S. history, covering some 400 square miles. At the same time, wildfires also erupted across much of Michigan.

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060209chicagofire.htm