The Great Burn was the name given to the destruction that consumed much of the Earth as a result of the Second Earth Alliance Civil War. Most of the planet's major settlements were destroyed in the conflict, which may have involved nuclear weapons. The civil war that caused this great devastation began when Prole Sector and the ISA loyalist faction of the Earth Alliance preemptively attacked Politdivision Central in 2762, after learning of the plans of the anti-ISA faction to simultaneously attack civilian targets in the Earth colonies and the loyalist nations of Earth.