The Porcupine and Cochrane Fires 



S»'v«>iity (li'utli^ .111.1 .1 property loM 

 varioUHly «<Htitiuit«>i| at troiii u million und 

 u hulf to tlir«'«> million <lolliirN in in lirief 

 tlio Mtory of tho awful (ires wliicli renter- 

 0(1 in tlio vicinity of I'oroupinc hnko, On- 

 tario, about four luuxirotl and fifty miles 

 duV north of the rity of Toronto. Tlieiie 

 flri's occurred early in July, the climax 

 comin^f on Jiriy 11. On thiH day alMo the 

 town of Cochrane, about forty-five miles 

 distant, was burned by another fire with 

 a loss of three lives, and only nine build- 

 ings were left standing. The fact that 

 tlu'si' fires occurred in the mining,' district 

 which is attracting; at present so much at- 

 tention gave them greater prominence, 

 i'orcupine is a new canij). Cobalt is about 

 one hundred miles to the soiith, and the 

 famous Timagami Forest Kcservo is also 

 to the south and its nearest edge about 

 one hundred and twenty-four miles dis- 

 tant. This district is traversed by the 

 Ontario Government Kailway (also known 

 as the Timiskaining and Northern Ontario 

 Kailway), the north terminal jioint of 

 which is the town of Cochrane. At Coch- 

 rane the Ontario (iovernnient Railway in- 

 tersects the National Transcontinental 

 section of the Qrand Trunk Pacific Rail- 

 way. 



The Earlier Fires. 



The country through which the fire 

 I)assed is, for the most part, level. The 

 characteristic forest growth of the re- 

 gion is birch and poplar, the ground is 

 covered with a thick carpet of moss and 

 the undergrowth is abundant, almost lux- 

 uriant. One of the greatest means of 

 rripidly sjtreading a fire in such a forest 

 is the thin, light bark of the birch; it 

 catches fire in an instant, and a bla/.ing 

 sheet of it may be carried half a mile or 

 more, to start a new fire far ahead of the 

 old. 



Owing to the extremely dry weather 

 small fires had been quite frequent in the 

 district in the latter part of June and 

 early July. The townships most affected 

 were Tisdale and Whitney, and to a small- 

 er extent Shaw, Bristol, Peloro, Langmuir, 

 Eldorado, Ogden, Mc Arthur and Cripple 

 <'reek. On July 1 there were fires about 

 the village of Porcupine at the north 

 end of the lake and at South Porcupine 

 at the opposite end, and along the line of 

 the Ontario (Jovernment Kailway. The 

 Dome group of mines in the south jmrt of 

 Tisdale township were throughout the 

 centre of the worst fires. On July 1 the 

 buildings at the North and West Dome 

 Mines were destroyed, and at the Dome 

 Extension several men, including the mine 



captain, were injured fighting the fires. At 

 McDougall townsitc all the buildings were 

 burned; all the people were r«>Mcued in 

 gasoline luunrhes, but those who could 

 not be taken away on the first trip were 

 compelled, while waiting for the return of 

 the launches, to stand in the water up to 

 their chins. The fire extended to Pearl 

 Lake in Tisdale township and the Pearl 

 hake Mining Company's plant was wiped 

 out. On the following day a few shacks 

 were burned at South Porcupine and at 



KEY PLAN 



Showing rel«tiv« position of Ih* 



PORCUPINE GOLD AREA. 

 Toronto to /(•IS9 ia 449 mis. 



Q5 



