Report of the Forest Commission. 107 



"I felt in my bones that we were going to have a burn. We got the fire (in 



the barn) under control, and it would not have gone a foot further; but the 



next thing I knew they came and told me St. Paul's Church, about two 



quares north, was on fire. The next thing I knew the fire was on Bateham's 



planing mill." 



Also, there is quoted a remarkable sentence from a press report sent out by 

 an eye witness, which is as follows: "Buildings far beyond the line of fire, 

 and in no contact with it, burst into flames from the interior." 



"It must not be forgotten," says Mr. Donnelly, '• that the fall of 1871 was 

 marked by extraordinary conflagrations in regions widely separated. On 

 October 8, the same day the Wisconsin, Michigan and Chicago fires broke out, 

 the States of Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois were severely devastated 

 by prairie fires while terrible fires raged iD the Alleghanies, the Sierras of the 

 Pacific coast and the Rocky Mountains, and in the region of the Red river of 

 the north. 



