St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-05-12
FIRE FlEND FEASTING.
Pennsylvania Towns Eneir-
eled by DeVouring Flames
On All Sides.
& Relief Train Is Ditched in a
Sea Of Fire and Many
Lost.
People in the Afflicted Section
Are Praying for a Rain
fall.
EIiles of Country Burned Over
--New Jersey and Michi-
gan Suffer.

the pretty little lumber farming towns
of Austin, Costello, Gaeton and MOore's
Run, in Potter county, are on the verge
of a panic, two especially being threat
ened with annihilatiOn from fires that
seem to form an impenetrable wall on
every SIDE For several days past the
Skies have Deen lighted up with fires
apparently in every direction, bat little
fears we're entertained by people living
In the towns, as those threatened and in
danger were farmers in the country dis
trlcts, or lumber camps in the midst of
the blazing forests. In spite of every
effort, however, the flames crepJ
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. AT Moore's Run, on the pretty
Sinnemahoning road. train load of
seventy-iive willing men, sent out from
Austin Sunday night, had been fighting
back the fire by evesy conceivable
means. They made trenches, piled up
earth and lighted back fires. but were
finally obliged to retreat. The men
hastily boarded the train and started to
make a run to another point, when it
was found they were hemmed in by the
forest fire on one side and a huge skid
way of logs on the other. Ii was finally
decided to dash past the burning skid
way, and the engineer and fireman, with
faces covered with dampened cloths and
their hands and arms wrapped i'll wool,
mounted the little engine and pulled
out through the wall of fire. The SeV-
enty-fiye exhausted men gathered in
groups on the flats for protection, or lay
on their faces on the floor. AS
The Blazing Furnace
of logs was approached the heat be-
came unbearable, and the smoke so
binding and sitting that the men were
obliged to cover their mouths with
cloths. just opposite the millions of feet
of burning logs, where the heat and
smoke and flames were the greatest,
terrible thing occurred. The engineer
had forgotten that such great heat
would surely spread the rails, and he
pulled the throttle wider in the hope of
sooner escaping from torment of heat
and smoke. Then there was lurch,
an Omin0uS heaving and a shrek of de-
spair as the train toppled over into the
hell of fire beneath. A scene enSued
never TO be forgotten by those WhC es-
capped, and every man Will bear to his
grave a mark of that awful moment.
The cars caught fire like so many paper
playthIngs, and the men within, half
blinded, and scarcely realizing any
thing, except that they were being
slowly roasted to death. struggled fear
fully to regain the track, where safety
lay, for a time at least. those
uniniured from the fall, and only smart
ing from the pain of intense heat, brave
ly turned their burned, blackeDed 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. Supt. Badger, of the
Sinnemahoning Valley road, was in
charge of the relief train, and had
worked the hardest of all to save the
properties of others. When the train
was ditched. and rolled over so sudden
~, he 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
wIeck, he had evidently slowly burned
to death. At this time $3.50 p. m.) it is
known that six others also
NEiserably PerIshed
at once, or died soon after, and thirty
Others of the party were badly burned,
many probably fatally, owing to the
fact that they inhaled the flames that
seemed to fairly spring into their faces.
Seven others of the party are missing,
and their fate is unknown, though they
are likely 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 OH accompanying the
train, though they will hardly be able
to reach the place of the wreck unless
the fires have burned themselves out.
Owing to the great devastation done 10
everything in The way of the fire, COM
munication is badly Interrupted, and it
is impossible to learn the names of the
men burned or those still miss
ing. AS to the damage, it is
known 100000 feet of hemlock
logs and timber, and $4,000
cords of valuable bark has already
been destroyed. and the fires are raging
without any appTeciable diminution
This evening the people are praying for
rain, as it seems nothing but drench-
ing viii quench the flames that have
grown so fierce they must either be eX-
tinguished by the floods of heaven or
burn out for lack of material. A mill
ion beacon lights seem TO be burning
from every mountain and hillside, and
the air is so oppressive that many work
erS faint from exhaustion, and are
dragged away from flame that has
done nothing as yet but steadily adj
vance. Late dispatches from Austin
confirm former reports. The body Of
Supt. Bangor has been found burned
to crisp. and the entire party would
have perished in the burning train or
forest fire had they not immersed them
selves in q creek The fires have been
raging torty-eight hours; twelve solid
miles of lumber in one district have al
ready been burned, and the end is not
yet.
CLEARFIELD, Pa, May 11.-Forest
hres have swept over large portion of
this county and lumbermen are suffer
ing great loss. The sky is lighted up in
all directions and the smoke was so
dense in this place last night that the
people could scarcely breathe. The
town of 1rwinsvilIe, with 1900 popula-
tion, is threatened, and 800 men are
ready to go to the rescue from here.
New Jersey on Fire.
New YORK, May 11.-A disastrous
fire broke out Saturday, and was raging
between Mt. Pleasant and Petersburg,
I'm Cape May county, n. j., yesterday.
1t is reported that the fire was started
by Charles Cranmer, who was burning
brush and allowed the flames to get be-
y0nd his control. The fire has burned