78 Report of the Forest Commission. 



150 pounds to be indicated that important mains were burst and lessened the 

 water supply to the ordinary amount. 



A Desperate Battle with Fire. 



The railway men were equal to the emergency. Thirty ' ' dead " locomotives 

 were fired up in almost no time, and plucky engineers were soon moving all 

 the rolling stock to places of safety on the lake front. 



Quantities of household goods were burned and over 100 families are home- 

 less. Hundreds of men remained at their posts fighting the flames as best 

 they could. Even with wet sponges and goggles they could not long remain 

 in the intense heat and suffocating smoke, and when they could stay no longer 

 others took their places. Twenty or more were completely overcome and had 

 to be removed to the hospital. Many women and children fled in terror, and 

 in their mad flight did not stop until the lake front was reached, believing 

 that safety could only be found in the waters which the fires could not reach. 

 Others were only saved by desperate efforts of the officers with patrol wagons. 



All day settlers have been coming in, many nearly exhausted in their race 

 for life with the pursuing fire. Timber and vegetation burns like straw, as 

 there has been no rain since July 10. A woman and babe, supposed to be the 

 wife and child of a settler, were picked up in an insensible condition to-night 

 near the White River road. The child died soon after arriving here. The 

 mother is in a delirium and it is supposed her husband perished on the Odanah 

 reservation. 



Indians are camping on a raft in Bad river and are said to be hemmed in by 

 an archway of flames. It is feared there must be great loss of life there. 



Three families near Marengo have perished and there was a call for help 

 from there, but none could be sent. One settler name Egstrom was driven 

 crazy by the loss of his wife and family of two children. His hair and eye- 

 lashes and clothes were burned from his body when he was rescued. 



At Parish ville the large iron plant is reported to be burning. 



Over 200 Square Miles Ablaze. 



As nearly as can be estimated there is a sea of fire over 200 square miles of 

 territory and it is rapidly sweeping north, burning everything in its path and 

 driving before it the homesteaders whom it has not overwhelmed. The damage 

 to standing timber is enormous and is roughly estimated by lumbermen as not 

 less than $5,000,000. It is impossible to get details, but when the story of 

 to-day's disaster is fully told it is feared that the death list will be found to 

 have run into the hundreds. 



OSHKOSa, Wis , September 15. — The fires to the north of this city have been 

 the cause of a peculiar phenomenon. The city is enveloped with strong, pun- 

 gent smoke and the sun is so obscured that even at noon it had the appearance 

 of an eclipse. The city is in a state of semi-darkness, and has been so for sev- 

 eral days. 



Marinette, Wis., September 15. — The smoke was so dense in the city to-day 

 from the forest fires that the public schools bad to be closed. A thunder 

 shower toward evening brought great relief. 



