The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-06-06
The Fire ON the Bngucnsay: RIyer-e
Nearly Seven Hundred Families
Henaeicss-sa ffcriin 4 s--scelsing

The Quebec GtYosicle Of the a7th tlltime
has an account Of the great fire which has
been raging on the Saguenay river, as fol-
lows: s5si .s5..E5Sz,t Y -s.l .s.s 81 ,.5
tremendous coniiagration was reported
along the Sag1ieRay river From Mis$as.
SINE to st. Alphonse the greatest part of
the habitationS arc destroyed by. fire, and
over 5000 persons are without shelter and
deprived Of everything. Six lives were lost.
The total number of families who are tlesti-
tutc is 655. The fire covered an area Of
aboutfive miles wide by thirty-siX In length,
and extended from Lake st. John to Chicou.
timi. All the buildings were destroyed by
. O'Clock in the evening of the same tlav.
I'VE learn through Mr.. Trefnblay, M. r.
for Chicoutimi, who has just returned from
the burned district, that the fire in its
ravagcs swept everything before it., and has
left the number Of families above quoted in
absolute poverty and ruin. The fire trn.
yelled in circuitous direction, covering
ovcr1 900 miles IN superscies, and 100 from
one extreme point to the other. The ire
rrlar course, II is supposed, is attributable
10 the wind, which changed three or four
times while the fire was going on. The
poor people who. were so unexpectedly
driven from their happy and comfortable
homes had to seek shelter in the swamps
and underground places, as every build
ING standing within tho march OF the
lire was lcvellcd TO the ground. Some
Of the sutierings which the poor inllahia
iants had TO endure are painful 10
contemplate. One poor woman who had
passed through the pains Of childbirth but
- few hours before the fire had reached her
'lomlcai was removed. with the newborn
miami, by the husband to q swamp, where
>hc passed the night alone, rs the husband
hS' returned to the house to save some OF
ms wearing apparel. but found in the mean
time that the fire had cut of the commune
cation with the swamp where his wife
sought shelter. Another man.. finding es-
cape impossible, jumped into his well,
where he passed the whole night and part
Of the following day, while the fire swept
over his head. Even here the heat at times
became so intense that he was compelled
occasionally to slip below the surface Of the
water TO avoid being scrched. A number
of families sought shelter on the lake shore,
but were compelled to wade into it over
the waist, rs the fire i'll its r,yages had
burnt up everything down TO the very
edge of the water. -,
THE origin of this fire Is attributable to
The stupidity Of certain farmers who had
set fire TO the woods in different places to
make clearances and burn up the under
brush. Had these people only thought Sc
riously of the result which might follow
their rash act they would not have set fire
~ the woods, when they know, after the
dry season through which we have just
passed, that the trees would be like so
much punk. 1t is not only the great danger
the people residing in these isolated districts
incur by setting the fire, but, as the men,
her for Gaspe pointed out mt the last session
" the local Parliament. the whole country
suffers through this restless destruction of
our forests. A law was passed to prevent
The setting fire to the woods during certain
seasons; but this law. like great many
others, will be either allowed to remain in
allowance o,- NO nlto oafha,. dicrauord.1