74 Report of the Forest Commission. 



There are several ways of fighting forest fires without water . The people of 

 the unfortunate city of Phillips, Wis., that has just been destroyed, used dyna- 

 mite with some success after their waterworks had been destroyed. " Burning 

 back" is a favorite method. It consists of cutting down the trees in a belt of 

 timber so wide that the flames can not reach across it, and then setting fire on 

 the side of the cleared belt nearest the blaze . When the two fires meet they 

 die for lack of material. This method is sometimes rendered of no effect by 

 high winds, which occasionally carry the sparks over distances that are almost 

 incredible . A favorite method of preventing forest fires' progress over cleared 

 ground is to plow over as broad a belt as there is time for, but it is obvious 

 that this plan is not of much value unless the air is still. 



{Milwaukee Sentinel, September 17, 1893.) 

 Rain Only Can Bring Relief, 

 Rain was never prayed for with more fervor by the residents of northern 

 Wisconsin than it has been the past three weeks. For nearly a month the for- 

 est fires have been burning continuously, and for the last two or three weeks 

 they have been of serious proportions. Standing timber worth millions of 

 dollars has been sacrificed, while hundreds of poor settlers have seen not only 

 their homes, but all their possessions, swept away before the angry flood of 

 flame, which has assumed such proportions as must be seen to be appreciated. 

 While estimates by experienced lumbermen place the loss to standing timber 

 at fully $6,000,000, the hardships because of this tribute to the flames will be 

 but slight in comparison to the suffering which must be felt by poor home- 

 steaders whose all has been burned in the fires. That there will be widespread 

 suffering and destitution there can no longer be any doubt. 



The Extent of the Conflagration. 



Some idea of the immense extent of the burning forests can be obtained 

 when it is known that the fires extend from Shawano, Lincoln and Port- 

 age counties on the south to Lake Superior on the north and west- 

 ward from Marinette and Oconto counties to Sawyer, Barron and Chippewa 

 counties. Through the forests which cover this broad acreage the fires 

 are burning with more or less malignity everywhere, although at no 

 place have they been more severe than in the vicinity of Marshfield, along the 

 lines of the Wisconsin Central, the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western, and 

 the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha railways. Here they have 

 been a veritable fiery furnace, and fanned by high winds, at times approach- 

 ing a hurricane, which have prevailed the past few days, the flames have 

 wrought almost untold damage. But nowhere has the fight against the flames 

 been more successful than in this district. 



At McMillan, which has been the key point to the situation, the battle has 

 been a particularly desperate one, and if in the end Frank McMillan saves his 

 home and plant, which now seems probable, he may well think his escape 

 almost miraculous. 



He's a Great Fire-fighter. 



As a forest fire-fighter Mr. McMillan has a reputation in the northern coun- 

 try, and it has been his generalship which has so far saved his plant. For sixty 



