Canadian Fuicstiij Journal, November, 1918 



1911 



Shocking Loss of Life, U. S. Forest Fires 



Five Hundred Bodies Recovered in Min- 

 nesota Holocaust of Middle October 



Duhith, Minn., Oct. 13.— With 

 probably five hundred persons dead, 

 thousands homeless and without 

 clothing, and with property damage 

 mounting far into millions of dollars, 

 whole sections of northern Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota timberland, to-night 

 are smouldering, tire-stricken areas, 

 with only the charred ruins of aban- 

 doned, depopulated towns to accen- 

 tuate the general dissolution. 



The bodies of seventy-five victims 

 lie in Duluth morgues. Hundreds 

 more along the roads leading to Du- 

 luth and Superior lay where they fell 

 when overtaken by the fire. 



Twelve thousand homeless and 

 penniless refugees, all in need, more 

 or less, of medical attention, are 

 quartered in hospitals, churches, 

 schools, private homes and in the 

 armory here, while doctors and nurses 

 sent from surrounding communities 

 attend them, and nearly every able 

 bodied man in the city has been con- 

 scri])ted to fight the flames which 

 now are dying away. 



Definite confirmation was not avail- 

 able, but incendiaries were driven 

 away from a local shipyard when 

 the fires in Duluth and Superior 

 were burning at their height, ac- 

 cording to F. J. Longren, fire marshal, 

 and other city and state officials. 



-Reports reaching here by courier 

 told of widespread destruction, but 

 it was evident that in most cases the 

 fury of the flames was spent. Du- 

 luth and Superior are in no further 

 danger. Virginia is safe and Brain- 

 ard was untouched. However, peat 

 ])0g fires are now said to have men- 

 aced the latter city. 



Greatest loss of life and property 

 damage is believed to have occurred 

 in the Cloquet region, where a num- 

 ber of towns have been destroyed and 

 all semi-rural settlements virtually 

 wiped out. 



A special train of 20 coaches 

 brought 1,500 refugees from Clo- 



quet and Carleton. They confirmed 

 reports that many persons lost their 

 lives in those towns. 



A $35,000,000 LOSS 



Should the insurance loss equal 

 or exceed $15,000,000, and it is 

 believed that it will be fully that 

 much, the recent forest fires in north- 

 ern Minnesota represent the greatest 

 conflagration since the San Francisco 

 fire in 1906, according to the "Insur- 

 ance Field." The propertv loss is 

 placed at $35,000,000. The biggest 

 property loss was at Cloquet, Minn., 

 where the loss on lumber alone is 

 placed at $6,000,000, with the town 

 suffering a million dollars more. 

 These figures take no account of the 

 destruction standing timber and 

 young growth. 



SOLDIERS FIGHT FIRES 



Aberdeen, Wash., Sept. 30. — With 

 the woods dry as tinder, following 

 six weeks without rain, logging camps 

 where soldiers are employed, were 

 under strict guard Sunday. One 

 hundred soldiers from Camp Lewis 

 were sent Saturday night to Lind- 

 berg, Lewis County where a bad fire 

 was reported to the spruce division 

 headquartrs here, and soldiers were 

 likewise fighting fire at Norton, Lew- 

 is County. Major Hightower, dis- 

 trict commandant, asked Portland 

 general headquarters of the spruce 

 production bureau Saturday night 

 that troops be held in readiness at 

 Vancouver to be sent any place in 

 the district to assist in fighting fires 

 in case of need. 



The most serious fire in Gray's 

 Harbor region Sunday night was that 

 raging in the Matlock district, where 

 the Callow mill and three camps 

 of the Simpson Logging Company 

 had been burned, togther with 

 number of ranch homes. 



