Report of the Fore si Commission. 63 



burned. After that no more news as to the situation could be learned from 

 Phillips. 



Chelsea and Whittlesey, two towns on the Wisconsin Central road, 30 miles 

 south of Phillips, are in imminent danger of being swept away. 



The towns are in the wilds of Taylor county, and are surrounded by dense 

 forests on all sides. It will be utterly impossible to save either if the high 

 winds continue and the fire spreads. 



Fifield, Wis., July 27. — Five hundred women and children from Phillips are 

 in the woods here without shelter or food, and as the supplies are very short 

 here a requisition on Ashland was made. Whatever happens there is bound 

 to be great suffering among the unfortunate people. They cannot escape from 

 the blinding, stifling smoke that travels through the forests and openings, and 

 this, together with their agony of mind, makes their condition most pitiful. 

 There is not room in the houses of this little town to shelter the homeless, but 

 everything that can be done to relieve them will be done by the citizens. 



Relief Train Cut Off. 



A relief train which left Ashland for this place has been cut off by the flames 

 which are rapidly eating their way in every direction in this vicinity, so that 

 it is impossible to tell at what moment Fifield may be swept away and her 

 citizens also driven into the woods perhaps to meet the elements where escape 

 is impossible. 



{From the Milwaukee Wisconsin, July 31, 1894.) 



Phillips, Wis., July 31. — The forest fires are still burning around here, and 

 the citizens had to turn out last night and fight a fire which threatened to 

 destroy the poor farm, the fair grounds acid the timber on the east side of Elk 

 Lake. The wind had got around in the northeast early in the day, and the fire 

 which had done so much damage last Friday was coming on a back tack. 

 Scoresof people were still in shelter in the fairgrounds, and they sent an alarm 

 to relief headquarters. The bridge connecting the town proper and the road 

 leading to the fair grounds was burned in Friday's fire, and the 150 men who 

 responded to last night's alarm had to be ferried across the river. The men 

 were armed with buckets, shovels and axes, and they reached the scene none too 

 soon. The fire was coming over the hills with a terrible roar, and unless its 

 direction could be changed what little was left of Phillips on the east side of Little 

 Elk River would be a heap of ashes the same as the district west of the river. 

 The fire brigade, reinforced by a contingent from Prentice, stretched out over 

 a territory a quarter of a mile wide. Brush was cut all around the poor farm and 

 " back-fired." The attempt was successful, and about 9 o'clock the fire shot 

 by to the north of the poor farm and fair buildings. From the direction in 

 which the fire came it was feared that the township of Emory has been wiped 

 out. Fires have been seen all day near the town of Worcester, south of here, 

 but no reports have reached here yet. 



The last of the bodies of those known to be missing was recovered from the 

 lake yesterday, and all were buried in the little cemetery near the fair grounds , 

 except the bodies of Frank Cliff and child, which were shipped to a neighbor- 

 ng town. It is still impossible to tell whether more than the 13 persons, 

 whose bodies have now been recovered, lost their lives in Friday's fire. The 

 city authorities opened a register this morning, and are having everybody 



