Morris tribune., 1886-12-15
A PRAIRIE FIRE.
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF A RECENT
STRUGGLE OF THE FARMERS.

How the Flames Are Fought In the
Northwest--Spread of the Devastating
Element-The Tumble weed-reril from
Water Courses.
A prairie fire in Dakota differs vastly
from those fires which, in the early day,
were not uncommon in Illinois from the
fact that the grass in Dakota is so much
less rank and only about one-fourth of the
height of that of the Illinois prairies For
this reason an incipient prairie fire in
Dakota did not appear to me to be a very
dangerous thing or one difficult to contend
with. This error was soon dispelled when
] saw a line of flame over Il mile long
making Roadway against an army of men
armed with improvised fails, stationed at
intervals of yard or two, beating, sweep
ing, and slapping out the fire with rapid
and vigorous blows.
A CONTEST WITH THE FLAMES.
When the alarm came to town every
vehicle on the street was filed with men,
the horses whipped into a gallop and
driven over hill and creek till the fire was
reached. Others followed rapidly bring
ing casks of water, old rags brooms, old
WOODEN cloths and sticks. The sticks
were converted into mops or fails by hav.
ing the old cloths tied on one end. These
were soaked in the water, and as we ar
rived at the fire we joined in the contest
with the army already there. The flames
coming over little hill covered with
bunch grass and buffalo grass seemed not
over a foot high and appeared easy to
overcome, but though twenty men album
dainty supplied with water and weapons
contended with it they found it difficult
to prevent it's lateral extension, while
under the impetus of stiff breeze from
the south, its front swept northward at
the rate of about six miles an hour
against the efforts to arrest it.
Fortunate indeed is the settler who has
an abundant supply of water. In this fire
three teams were kept at gallop carry
ing saturated cloths and water to satu-
rate others up and down the 'sline of bat
tie" to supply the defenders, and it kept
fifty men busy to defend line of less than
a mile and prevent the westward spread
of the flames to the stacks and buildings
of the farmers, and they were aided in
this by long stretch of ground that had
been moved to within an inch of the sur
face. Here, to my establishment, the fire
found fuel in the crisp buffalo grass and
short stubble; the former burning as If
saturated with napthn, and though the
flames did not mount high, their heat was
SO intense that those who fought them
without sticks to their cloth Weapons had
their hands and faces blistered. A friendly
field Of late fax, which was about six
inches high and still green, arrested the
northward sweep and narrowed is course.
Northward Of this field the fighters hnr-
ried to keep thu FIRE in it's narrowed
limits. A dry creek and swamp with q
heavy growth Of rushes gave additional
food to the flames, and for few minutes
there was an excellent imitation of fire
/ witnessed in Illinois in 1S4S. Along
this creek it swept unresisted because
irresistible, and followed the course of
the dry bed of the creek easterly beyond
our reach, widening the front of the fire
and threatening to make its destructive
swath many miles wide when deep pool
arrested its eastward course and rank
growth of green weeds impeded its north
ward progress and kept it within the
limit Of about mile in width.
At this rate it sped northward, the he
roic people fighting it and gradually mar
rowing it till midnight, when it was ex-
tinguished about fifteen miles from where
it started In its course it found but lit
tie to give it extra impetus. A paper
covered shanty, winrows, or small ricks
of hay, or a dry leke-bed for the first
three miles; then a stack of four or five
tons of hay, q few of barley or straw, and
fortunately for all, but few of those as
sistant demons of the prairie fury, the
tumble weeds. This vegetable incendiary
"a weed that ripens early and is by no
means classed with the portulacca family,
and when ripe is almost a true sphere,
varying from twelve to twenty inches in
diameter-breaks from its roots when
dry; its light stalks and dry leaves are
struck by the wind, and it goes rolling
and tumbling, bounding over low OBJ
structions as would a toy balloon, and
more rapidly than would straw hat.
Neglected fields are very prolific of them,
and they may be seen by hundreds and
thousands in the railway cuts and bitches,
against snow fences and among the
standing corn. When one of these takes
fire. and goes over roads and plowed
grounds. it carries the fire past all ordin-
airy fire guards. eludes the contending
force of fire fighters, and kindles new fires
for them to resist.
The fire herein described was not one
CT our worst. One that originated on
the line between Hughes and Sully coun
ties about noon some of the time travelled
at the rate of twenty miles an hour
before g fierce southern gale. A farmer
who had put OF his shoes saw it appar
emily two miles distant, and before he
could ciothc his feet the flames were
upon his fields end all he could do with
the utmost haste was to get as many of
his horses and household goods as posi-
BILE upon a garden patch covered with
green vcGctation. whittier his family had
fed, and sec his houses, stables, and over
twenty stacks Of hay and grain burn,
without the power to save anything. In
seven hours it had crossed six townships
and by midnight twelve hours it had
gone seventy miles against every effort to
check il. II passed ever portions of about
thirty townships. In its devastating
course It did not probably find the grass
over tw.lve inches high in any continuous
tract OF twenty acres. Here the tumble
weed aided it greatly, for plowed fire
guards from ten to thirty three feet wide
were leapsd, roads offered no obstruction
to it, while the drought that has pre-
vailed since the middle Of June made the
beds of streams its Eaost dangerous allies.
Blunt OAK Cor. Chicago Tribune.
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