The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-07-21
A Vivid Description of Forest Fire.
@ Thank Gndw

clouds poured down torrents of rain hour
after hour-enOugh to drown out even
forest fire.
There is something terrible connected
with such calamity as befell Mt. Carmel;
there is a feeling of awe and a chill of
fear as one walks over the path of tor
nado; but men who have never witnessed
forest fire have but a faint idea of its
terrible power to almost blot a county off
the map. 1t is more terrible than the
tornado-more appalling than the swift
moving, rapid-working cyclone.
People wonder how wilderness of
trees, each tree clothed in its spring
dress, can become a sea of flame, but
everything is food for a forest fire. If
the first sheet of flame does not smlte
the green pine or devour the leaves of
the beech and maple it parChes and dries
them for the flames to follow, and the
stout pine, shooting hundred feet high,
becomes a beacon-light for a moment,
then sways, tOtters and goes down with
an awful crash, to burn until a heap of
ashes alone marks the earth.
Your correspondent was in OsCeola
County when the fires first began. In
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thicket, miles away from village or ham
let, was pioneers cabin. The clearing
around it comprised ten acres. Some of
the ground was ready for corn, and some
of it had been sowed and planted, while
the forest around was so damp and green
that one would have smiled at the idea
of great sheets of flame climbing those
tall trees and waving fifty feet above
them. One night some hunters built
grand fire against a heap Of dry logs.
The next day they were miles away, and
the fire had begun to creep. Little
tongues of flame reached out after dry
sticks and limbs, larger tongues followed
them, and before night the fire mad con-
troll of an acre of forest. That was start
enough. At midnight the wind came up
fresh, and the heat of the fire drove
through the forest, scorching and baking
a trail for the red flames.
Pm afraid there is fire in the woods
to the west of u.s." said the pioneer one
morning as we stood at his cabin.door.
| We could scent the odor of burning
| trees and leaves, and there was smoky
look to the forest. AT noon the odor was
| stronger, the smoke denser, and the live
stock around the clearing began to exhibit
signs of alarm When the oxen were
unyoked to be fed they turned their heads
to the west, scented the air for moment,
and then charged across the clearing to
the east at full speed, being out of sight
| in two minutes.
THAT means dangerw said the pioneer
in low voice, and he turned pale. He
believed the fire to be in large swamp
ten miles away, but hardly thought it
possible for the green forest to ignite.
We sat down to dinner, meaning to hunt
for the oxen afterward; but before the
meal was over there was fresh cause
for alarm. A buck and two does dashed
into the clearing, closely followed by
fox, score of rabbits, and dozen COons
and woodchucks. The deer ran to the
far edge of the clearing as we went out,
but the other animals scarcely noticed US.
You 90 forward as far as you can,
and see what the danger is, and wife and
| will get ready for a rum said the
pioneer as the smoke grew thicker.
At that moment fresh alarm and
new warning reached US. There came
roar like the sea gives out when rushing
in upon broken beach. We had not
heard it before. 1t was steady, terri
bic roar, rising above all other sounds
A coming whirlwind might have created
the same sound. The rush of a vast
herd of butfaloes might have created
such a roar. 1t was awful! The ground
trembled, the smoke became blacker,
and the heat was like the rush of air
from a hot oven.
1t is not mile away-we must run
for our livesm shouted the settler
He had three children. picked up
boy of seven. the pioneer seized his
little girl, two years younger, and the
wife took the sleeping babe from the
cradle. There wasn't time to take down
a spare garment from the wall-to pick
up a cherished gift or a treasured relic.
This way-hurrym | heard the
pioneer call out, and, gasping for breath
and blinded by the smoke, l pushed on
after him.
The roar was louder and grander and
more terrible. Falling on us and around
US were little brands of fire, and to the
west, half a mile away, was wall of
flame hundred feet high "a wall which
was coming down upon the clearing at
the rate of six miles an hour. The wall
of fire was twelve miles long, and the
waters of Lake Erie would have scarcely
drenched it out.
A deer ran against me as l staggered
after the pioneer. More than once |
stumbled against the small wild animals
rushing here and there through the clear
ing. My hair and wbiskers were scorch-
ing, and my clothing was on fire in Il
dozen places, when we reached the out
door cellar, a place dug into a hill side
about four hundred feet from the house.
1t was part cave, part structure, but well
covered with earth, and almost free from
smoke, The two children had passed
through all right, but the babe was so
nearly sultOcated that we had hard work
to save its life.
just before the flames reached the
clearing the ground trembled as it did
around Gettysburg when five hundred
pieces of artillery Numbered away for