Report of tee Forest Commission, 77 



Some idea can be gained of the rapidity with which the fires travel when it 

 is stated that a gang of men sent out by Mr. McMillan Thursday to fight a fire 

 which was working toward his plant from the west, suddenly discovered that 

 the fire had got away from them and that it was burning brightly back of 

 them toward the plant. The men at once started to give the alarm, but before 

 they could reach the boundary at the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western 

 tracks the fire had reached there and was already being fought from in front 

 by a gang under Mr. McMillan's personal direction. 



A Brilliant Scene at Night. 



The sight of the fires at night is even more imposing than in the daytime, 

 as the sky for miles around the vicinity of the flames is one brilliant canopy 

 of red. Marshfield was lighted up Friday night on all sides by the fires. In 

 the southwestern sky the illumination was particularly brilliant and the reflec- 

 tion of the flames from the burning woods was a sight worth going miles to 

 see. The electric display at the World's Fair is not " in it " with the panorama 

 of blazing forests presented to the people of Marshfield. 



Major W. H. Upham had a mill at Kewaunee at the time of the great forest 

 fires which destroyed Peshtigo. Kewaunee's escape from destruction at that 

 time was a narrow one, a kind providence sending a rain storm just as the 

 fires reached the village. According to Major Upham, the fires this year 

 resemble the famous Peshtigo fire in the rapidity of their spread and the terri- 

 bleness of their attack on everything within their reach. He says they are 

 undoubtedly the worst that have occurred in Wisconsin since that date. 



Ashland, Wis., September 17. — The forest fires which have been creating 

 such havoc further south, have now reached the extreme northern limits of 

 the State. Today a dense pall of smoke, filled with cinders from the burning 

 forest, has hung over this city. At noon the people in the churches were 

 called from worship to face the dread foe. The smoke and cinders are almost 

 blinding. 



It has been an exciting Sunday in Ashland. Settlers have been coming in 

 all day from the surrounding country, flying for their lives from the fires that 

 have burned their homes and all their possessions. They tell pitiful tales of 

 suffering and death. 



Sweeping Down on the City. 

 The city itself was most seriously threatened, surrounded as it is by woods, 

 except on the lake front. The fire department was early called out to fight the 

 flames, which were rushing in on the town from the Odanah Indian reserva- 

 tion. A thousand citizens this afternoon joined them in the battle against 

 fire. At 3 o'clock a cry of despair went up from the throngs of fire-fighters 

 and spectators gathered near the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western railway 

 yards. The water- works had given out and there was no water, on which 

 alone depended the safety of the city. Chemical engines were quickly 

 sent for, but they were only playthings against the fire, fanned as it was by a 

 high wind. There are very few wells in the city, and the situation was most 

 serious. It seems the water- works engines were carrying 125 pounds pressure 

 all day. It was when the cry for more pressure induced the engineers to allow 



