A fringe theory links together several major fires that occurred simultaneously in America , including the Great Chicago Fire and the Peshtigo Fire , claiming that they were caused by fragments of Biela 's Comet striking the Earth . The theory was first proposed by Ignatius L. Donnelly in 1883 , and was revived in a 1985 book and further explored in an unpublished 2004 scientific paper . However , experts dispute such a scenario - meteorites in fact are cold to the touch when they reach the Earth 's surface , and there are no credible reports of any fire anywhere having been started by a meteorite . Given the low tensile strength of such bodies , if a fragment of an icy comet were to strike the Earth , the most likely outcome would be for it to disintegrate in the upper atmosphere , leading to an air burst explosion analogous to that of the Tunguska event
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
Biela's Comet