Fire Lands or Sufferers Lands
In September, 1781, the British and Tories invaded Connecticut. They destroyed by fire the towns of New London, Greenville, Fairfield, Danbury, Ridgefield, Norwalk, New and East Haven, and Groton. Benedict Arnold, then a British General, personally oversaw the destruction of New London.

More than 1,800 supporters of the American Revolution suffered because of the destruction of the nine towns. On May 10, 1792, the Connecticut Legislature set aside 500,000 acres at the west end of the Reserve to compensate these persons.

The Sufferers, as they became known, their heirs or legal representatives formed an Ohio Corporation on April 15, 1803, to manage their Ohio lands. By November 1808, their Board of Directors devised a plan to partition the "sufferers lands" among the sufferers or their assignees. They divided their land into five-mile-square surveying townships, and further subdivided the surveying townships into four-quarter townships, containing 4,000 acres each. The whole amount of the sufferers loss was, therefore, divided into 120 equal parts, for which they held a drawing which determined the location of the land the individual sufferers would receive.

The Fire Lands are located in Erie and Huron counties, Ruggles Township, Ashland County, and Danbury Township, Ottawa County.