Report of the Forest Commission, 49 



disasters that he would not know it was the same as he has been in the daily- 

 habit of passing. O. F. Murray, the Eastern road's operator at Hinckley, has 

 not been found, and it is feared that he is dead. Murray was the man who 

 telegraphed here the first report of the disaster, saying that the fires were 

 coming up like magic, and a minute later sent word that he must leave the 

 instrument as the flames were on him. 



A Station Agent SavES 500 Lives. 



Mr. Bullis, agent of the Eastern Minnesota at Sandstone, arrived here 

 last night. It was through his heroism that the 500 refugees on the 

 eastern train, which arrived here <n Sunday night, did not suffer the same 

 fate as hundreds of others. Sandstone Station is a mile out of the town, 

 and Kettle river, crossed by a great bridge, flows between. Bullis 

 was at his instrument when the eastern train, bringing 500 refugees, 

 passed back into Sandstone. He flagged the train in the darkness, 

 went back to his burning office, telegraphed north to stop all south-bound 

 business, in order to give a free road, and sent the train back as quickly as 

 possible, knowing that the bridge might catch fire at any moment. When the 

 train arrived atthe 1,500-foot bridge, Flagman Jessmersaw it burning brightly 

 in several places; but he at once decided that the chance of getting over was 

 preferable to sure death on the tracks, and it went on. Five hundred lives 

 bless the promptness of these two men. 



After Jessmer left the bridge he hurried with his wife and three children to 

 Sandstone and found the people in the river. They were in the water there 

 for three or four hours. Word came in last evening that 51 bodies were buried 

 at Sandstone yesterday afternoon, and 12 are still missing. A relief train left 

 here for that place, and started back at 8 o'clock last night, bringing 50 more 

 survivors and 20 or more injured on stretchers. 



The water-power village, two miles west of Sandstone, was in the direct 

 line of the cyclone of flames, but only three buildings were destroyed. It is 

 a quarry village, and is on the river side close under a high hill. When the 

 flames reached the hill they darted over it and were lost in space high above 

 the houses, while another column circled around the hill, spanned the river in 

 an instant, licking up the brush on the other side, and then recrossed the river 

 at the village, setting fire to three houses. The population turned out with an 

 engine and kept the fire from spreading. The hill saved the place from total 

 destruction and the loss of a greater percentage of lives than at Hinckley or 

 Sandstone, for there was no room to escape. The next morning the water 

 people, discovering the destitution of the Sandstone people, telegraphed them 

 to come over and share what they had, and in a short time the place was 

 cleaned out. Two cows which were badly injured by the flames furnished 

 meat for the hungry, and half-baked potatoes were dug from gardens. There 

 is not a thing to eat in the whole district . 



A Dry Well His Refuge from the Flames. 

 Oliver Dubois, a French-Canadian farmer, living on the outskirts of Sand- 

 stone, was among the|250 refugees who reached here from that place. He 

 saved his life by jumping into the bottom of a dry well, and was one of the 



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