Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-07-07
A MILE OF FLAME.
Furious Fire in the Lumber at
East Tawas.
STARTED BY AN IoE-LADEN GRAFT,

Inc FIRE spreads All AiOng the harDor
Until 1t Walls the Bay for Nearly y
MiIe-A Magnificent hut Costly Dis
play-Dynamite Utilized to Fight the
DESTROYER. and Piles of Lumber Thrown
Into the Water-Property Worth $780,
900 i'm Ashes-One Life Lost.
EAST TAwAs, Mich, July saturday
afternoon the barge Sea Cub drifted lazily
alongside Sibley e. Bearinger's lumber
docks, and lay rocking in a stiff south
eastern breeze. She was ice laden, and
rubbed up against the docks all after
noon. Occasionally she would glide out
into the bay a short distance, but the
wind soon took her back, and then she
would hug the docks all the closer Early
Saturday morning she caught fire. Great
piles of lumber were stretched along the
bay, extending far up and down the
dock. Sparks We're carried on the south
eastern breeze from the red and restless
Sea Gull to the high stacks of lumber.
Famed into an angry flame they soon
burst forth into conflagration that light
cd up the entire bay.
Lumbermen to the Rescue.
The shrill mill whistles aroused many
sleeping lumbermen. They ran down to
the dock, cut the Sea Gull loose and sent
her adrift before trying to check the fire.
Slowly she drifted down the bay and
when opposite the docks owned by Emery
Brothers and Bearinger she was driven
ashore again, and the breeze carried great
torches of flame to the lumber piles. The
Sea Gull could not be driven from the
harbor She lowered close to the shore,
throwing big brands of fire into the lum-
Der stacked high above her. and finally
rolled up alongside William Locke's dock.
There she lay in the glare of thousand
burning lumber stacks, shooting out
brands like skyrockets, though contrib
uting but meagerly TO the brilliant con-
Migration she had caused.
A Costly illumination.
The bay was now framed with sheet of
fire for almost mile. The flames shot
high into the air, and reached far oat over
the water, licking the waves and cracking
as they shot upward Men and women
rushed to the scene, and then ran hur-
riedly away to protect their threatened
homes. The flames followed the long
course of lumber piles, consuming them
as they went. The roar of the confiagra-
ton drowned the voices of those who gave
orders to the sturdy millmen. Fire tugs
from Au Sable We're called, but fleet of
them could not have checked the fire.
Across the bay at Tawas City the roar of
the burning lumber was plainly heard,
and hundreds ran to the shore to witness
the brilliant spectacle. The bay was
lighted for miles, and the flames seemed to
rise in an unbroken wall from the waters
edge to the frowning heavens
A Scene of Awful Grandeur.
The scene was magnificent in its gravity.
No fireworks of human design could equal
the display produced by the roaring mass
of lumber. As the flames leaped out over
the water and danced lightly from pile to
pile, shudder passed through the eager
crowd at Traverse City. Behind that wall
of fire was little colony of lumbermen
whose homes and lives perhaps, were at
the mercy of those angry flames. The
spectacle that had excited only admira
tion before excited awe now The little
group withdrew its gaze for an instant
and turned To contemplate the fate of
those whose weary hands had reared the
i'll fated rows of lumber
The MiIImen's Homes Saved.
Echoes of a tremendous explosion rolled
across the hay, and, looking again, the
eager crowd saw vast piles of lumber rise
in the air scatter in the winds and plunge
into the bay. The wall of fire was broken
at the same time. Another OMNIBUS re-
port followed, and more lumber piles were
thrown into the bay. The gap between
the roaring stacks was widened. Once
more a great mass of lumber was raised
from the ground and scattered upon the
dazzling waters and the homes of the
millmen were saved
Dynamite Put to Good Use.
They had resorted to heroic means. and
but for the use of great charges of dyna-
mite the big mills, and with them their
homes, would have been laid waste. Cut
off from the remaining piles, the fire
slowly burned itself out, consuming the
docks to the waters edge. Meanwhile the
Sea Gull had drifted ashore far below, a
total wreck. She was completely burned,
and with her persisted the cook, Mary
Clark. The loss to lumbermen is $500, 900.
OF this sum 500, 900 falls upon Siblsey g.
Bearinger. Other losers are the Tona-
wanda lumber company, William Locke,
Emery Brothers and Isaac Bearinger
AMyCIu ACMc CDnM TILE O0IInaN