THERE WAS SUCH A FIRE. Insta Pundit attempts to put the fate of the Gulf Coast in perspective.

But this is a natural disaster without parallel in American history -- like the Chicago Fire if it had spread across three states -- and disaster relief isn't like calling Domino's. Nor does the fact that we're Americans somehow offer supernatural protection from the consequences of a calamity like this.

Yup. Make that "like the Chicago Fire if it had spread across three thickly settled states." We observe Fire Prevention Week the first week of October because the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Peshtigo Fire killed some 1500 people in Michigan and Wisconsin (two states, but the fire jumped across the waters of Green Bay to the Door Peninsula.) The death toll in Chicago: 300. Firefighters in Milwaukee or Sheboygan would be second-guessed for choosing to go south or north to help.