94 Report of the Forest Commission. 



darts in insane rage into the dense blackness above. The picture then is tragic 

 and excels the artistic. 



But as extremes often produce their own remedy, so in the case of the forest 

 fire, the attendant atmospheric changes bring a heavy extinguishing rain- 

 fall. Then the sodden, charred country, with its myriads of blackened 

 skeletons of trees, looks like a picture of desolation and death, or of life with 

 the sunlight and song left out. 



Massachusetts. 



(Boston Herald, May 15, 1894.) 



Hingham, May 14, 1894. — The fiercest and most destructive forest fire which 

 ever devastated this section of the State started in the woods in South Hing- 

 ham yesterday afternoon and at this hour (midnight) is still raging as furiously 

 as ever. 



The danger to the farmhouses and dwellings in the vicinity of the woods 

 was so alarming last night that an alarm was rung in, calling out the Hingham 

 fire department to assist the citizens in subduing the flames. 



It was late in the afternoon when the alarm w^s given, and before any really 

 effective work could be done toward beating out the fire, darkness settled down 

 and the fire-fighters were compelled to reluctantly abandon their efforts. 



The residents and occupants of the dwellings and farmhouses scattered 

 through the territory and around the outskirts of the circle of the fire passed a 

 sleepless night and performed fire patrol duty to guard their endangered 

 homes from being licked up by the fiery elements. 



The flames continued to spread through the night and when morning broke 

 several miles of heavily timbered woodland had been covered by the fire. 



The flames lighted up the heavens last night for miles around and presented 

 a magnificent spectacle to the residents in the adjoining towns of Weymouth, 

 Abington, Rockland, Nor well, Scituate, Cohasset, Braintree, Randolph, Whit- 

 man, Bridge water, Quincy and other places. 



This morning it seemed as if the fire was going to get the advantage of the 

 citizens who were fighting it, and another alarm was given to call out the fire 

 department. 



All day long the firemen and several hundred citizens, under command of 

 Chief Engineer George Cushing, have been hard at work endeavoring to check 

 the progress of the flames, but with discouraging results, and when darkness 

 shut down to-night, and put a stop to further efforts in that direction, the fire 

 was burning as vigorously and defiantly as ever. 



There were a number of narrow escapes from fatalities among the brave fel- 

 lows who were fighting the fire to-day. Several instances have been reported 

 where the fighters had got into the bushes and lost their way, and were in 

 imminent danger of being surrounded by the element which they were com- 

 bating and being burned to death. 



Fortunately, however, no serious mishap has yet happened, and the only 

 casualties reported are the slight burns sustained by some of the more venture- 

 some or more careless of the fire-fighters. 



