Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-05-14
ESCAPE CUT OFF.
Details of Disaster in the Burning
Pennsylvania Forests,
Seven Men Known to Have Lost
Their Lives, and Others Are
Thought to Have Perished.

Thought to Have Perished.
HENMED IN BY FLAMES.
CoUDERsPoRF, Pa. May 1S-The pretty
little understanding towns of Austin,
Costello, Galeton and Moore's Run, ia
Potter county, are on the verge of
panic, two especially being threatened
with humiliation from fires that seem
TO form an imPenetrable wall
on every side. For several
days the skies have been lighted
up with fires apparently in every
direction. but little fears We're enter
tanned by people living in the towns,
as those threatened were farmers in
the country districts and the lumber
camps in the midst of the bla ling for
ests. In spite of every effort, howev r,
the flames crept steadily, in snaky
lines of smoke and flame, toward the
helpless towns until it was seen the
people must fight back the flames or
have their very houses burned down
over their heads. Details of the disas-
ter TO the relief train on Sunday are as
follows:
At Moore's Run, on the pretty Sin
mentioning road, a trainload of
seventy-fve willing men who had been
sent out from Austin Sunday night had
been fighting back the fire by every
conceivable means. They made
trenches, piled up earth and lighted
back fires. but were finally obliged to
retreat The Elen hastily boarded the
train and started to make a run to an
other point when it was found they
were hemmed in by the forest fires on
enc side and huge slSidway of logs on
the other. II was finally decided to
dash past the lp,rning skidway, and the
engineer and firemen with faces COW
cred with dampened cloths and their
hands and arms wrapped in wool,
mounted the little engine and pulled out
through the wall of fire. The seventy
five exhausted men gathered in groups
on the flats Sor protection. or lay on
their faces on the floor As the blazing
furnace of logs was approached the
heat became unbearable and the
smoke so binding and sitting the men
were obliged to cover their mouths
wien cloths
CuSb OIpCGAsC NiAC bAAAAAbh ANNg "
burning logs, where the heat and
smoke and flame were the greatest, a
terrible thirg occurred. The en-
gineer had forgotten that such
great heat would surely spread
the rails and he pulled the throt-
tie wider IN the hope of sooner
escaping from the torment of heat
and smoke. Then there was lurch,
an ominous hesving and a shrek of
despair as the train toppled over into
the hell of fire beneath. A scene en-
sued never to be forgotten by those
who escaped, though every man will
bear to his grave mark of
that awful moment. The cars
caught fire like so many paper
playthings, ard the men within half
blinded and scarcely realizing anything
except that they We're being slowly
roasted to death, struggled fearfully to
regain the track where safety lay, for
time at least. Those uninjured from
the fall and only smarting from the
pain of intense heat bravely turned
their burned, blaekened hands to aid
their more unfortunate fellows.
At this hour it is impossible to secure
details, though enough is known of the
scene that followed the hurting of the
struggling mass of men into the furnace
of flames to say its like had never oc-
Cured before. superintendent Badger
superintendent of the Sinnemahoning
Valley railroad, was in charge of the
relief train and had worked the hardest
of all to save the properties of
others When the train ditched and
rolled over so suddenly be must have
been injured so as to be unable TO help
himself, and owing to the smoke and
panic he was not found until too
late-jammed in the wreck. he had
evidently slowly burned to death.
1t is known that six others
also miserably persisted at once
or died soon afterward and thirty
others of the party were badly burned,
many probably fatally, owing To their
inhaling the flames that seemed to fair
ly spring into their faces. Seven others
of the party are missing and Il cir fate
is unknown, though they are likely to
be found in the charred wood of the logs
or train. Relief parties started for
the scene as soon as the fearful news
spread, many male relatives of the men
injured insisting on accompanying the
tram though they will hardly be able
to reach the place of the wreck unless
the fires have burned themselves ont.
The body of the superintendent has
been found burned to a crisp and the
entire party would have persisted in
the burning train or forest fire had
they not immersed themselves in
creek. The fires have been raging
forty-eight hours, twelve solid miles Of
lumber in one district have already
been burned.
Owing to the great devastation done
to everything in the way of the fire
communication is badly interrupted,
and it is impossible to learn the names
of the men burned or those still miss
ing. As 10 the damage, il is known
An mn O0O Taa4 ,f bavnloo IcCrc a M 4irr,