The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-05 00:00:00

A FOREST FIRE DESCRIBED.

The Kolninhe Zeitung publishes the following graphic
description of the forest fires in Michigan, written by
the wife of a German farmer who lives near Charleston :

"Between eleven and twelve a.m. we were all at
once overwhelmed with darkest night and a thick
suffocating smoke, now and then tinged blood-red
by lightning-like flashes from the distant fire spread
over all the landscape. It was fearfully hot; and
the furious wind, which had come with the smoke,
roared through the trees which surround our farm,
as if the last day had come. The storm met us
like the breath from the throat of hell when, an-
xiously feeling our way, we left the house to ascertain
the state of things and to see—if one can speak of see-
ing—whether we ought to prepare to die. It almost
seemed so, for large firebrands fell through the glow-
ing air, flames roared in the distance, and the storm
howled through the crasking trees as if it would tear
them up by the roots. At seven o'clock the flames
approached nearer and lit up the fearful picture, till
now veiled by the smoke, with a lurid glare. We
were in great danger of being roasted alive. I had al-
ready made my peace with Heaven, when suddenly
to my inexpressible joy I observed that the fire was
moving to one side. But still sparks and firebrands
fell in heaps into our farmyard, and my husband afid
I had to fight desperately against the greedy element.
My husband never left his post for a moment, but held
out till we could say, 'Now it is past ! '
"The situation was most dangerous about nine
o'clock. Sparks fell like hail, and here and there set
on fire the dry wood in the vicinity of the house.
Our children screamed and moaned enough to
break my .heart, and no help was to be expected
from outside: At last 1 could bear the misery of the
children no longer. I took them and fled to a clear-
ing, where made them a bed of mattresses and
clothes fetched from the house. My little girl Bertha,
tired with weeping, slept in spite of flames and smoke,
and I left her quiet for a moment. But then I was
afraid 'that she might be suffocated, and 1 took her
back to the house, as.now the greatest danger was
over. I myself scarcely looked like a human being;
blackened, half-blind, With dishevelled hair, I tottered
about, tired to death, and yet not daring even to sit
down. It was a fearful night, and we all longed for
day; but at six in the morning no light was to be seen,
and we almost lost hope, for we knew now that we
should experience further horrors in the densest dark-
ness. And so it was. It remained so completely dark
that we did not even know when the second evening
commenced.
"The following night was terrible, for the wind had
changed unfavourably for us and blew exactly towards
us. Happily the path the fire now took was pretty
well burned out already, and so we were able with un-
ceasing efforts to save our home once again. The
whole night long the sparks and firebrands fell, but we
extinguished them before they could do any harm.
"Now all around us, far and wide, everything is
desolate and black, and the smiling landscape is
changed into a dreadful waste. Men and animals
have perished in
.heaps. Two miles from us eight
persons were found dead in a well. Corpses lie on
all the paths and roads. It was all so terrible that I
fairly despaired. For three whole days I could see
nothing, and my husband's eyes were so affected that
I believed he would be blind for ever. Now we are
pretty well recovered and hapPy to have escaped, for,
except 2,000 fewriegelu, we have lost nothing.
Charleston is completely burnt down, and the sufferers
from this terrible calamity are everywhere in the
greatest misery."