In October 1871 Pernin was Catholic pastor of Peshtigo and Marinette, Wisconsin, neighboring logging towns on Green Bay. Occasioned by a summer long drought and carelessness with fire in a forest surrounding a town constructed of wood and strewn with logging debris, a disaster now known as the Great Peshtigo Fire engulfed Peshtigo on the night of October 8–9, completely burning the town and killing upwards of 1500 people, the deadliest wildfire in American history. Pernin survived the fire with hundreds of others, entering the Peshtigo River about 10 pm and submerging and splashing themselves in the water for five and a half hours.
