Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-05-15
They Had Gone to Fight the Flames
and We're Soon Surrounded
by Fire.
In Making 2 Dash Past a Huge Log
Pile, the Train Lett the
Track.
Cars and Men We're Thrown into the
Blazing Furnace of
Logs.

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 past the
skies have been lighted up with fires ap-
parently IN every direction, but little
fears we're entertained by the people
living in the towns, those threatened and
in danger we're farmers in the country
districts or lumber camps in the midst
of the blazing forest. In spite of every
effort, however, flames crept up steadily
in snaky lines of smoke and flame to-
ward helpless towns until it was seen
that the people must fight back the
flames or have their very houses burned
down ove their heads. At Moores Run,
on pretty Sinnemahoming road, a train
load of rs willing men sent out from
Austin Sunday night had been fghing
back the fire by every conceivable means.
They made trenches, piled up earth and
lighted back fires, but we're finally
obliged to retreat. The men hastily
boarded a train and started to make a
run to another point when it was found
they
THEY WERE HEMMED IN
by a forest fire on one side and a huge
skidway of logs on the other side. It
was finally decided to dash past the
burning skidway, and the engineer and
fireman, with their faces covered with
dampened cloths and their hands and
arms wrapped IN wool, mounted the lit
tie engine and pulled out through the
wall of fire. The Is exhausted men gath
cred 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 became unbearable
n the smoke was so binding and
sitting that the men we're obliged to
cover their mouths with cloths. Just
opposite the millions of feet of burning
logs, where the heat and smoke and flame
were greatest, a terrible thing occurred.
The engineer had forgotten that such
great heat would spread the rails and he
pulled the throttle wider in the hope of
sooner escaping from the torment of the
heat and smoke, her there was a lurch,
an ominous heaving and a shrek of de-
spair as the train toppled over
INTO THE DREADFUL FIRE BENEATH.
A scene ensued never to be forgotten
by those who escaped, though every man
will bear to his grave the mark of that
awful moment. The cars caught on fire
like SO many paper playthings, and the
men within, half blinded, and scarcely
realizing anything, except that they were
being
SLOWLY ROASTED 70 DEATH,
struggled fearfully to regain the track
where safety lay, for a time ut least,
those uninjured from the fall, and only
smarting from pain of the intense heat,
bravely turned their burned, blackened
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 men into the
furnace of flames, to say it's like had
never occurred before. Superintendent
Badger, superintendent of the Sinnema-
honing Valley road, was in charge of the
relief train and had worked hardest of
all to save properties of others. When
the train ditched, and rolled over 80
suddenly, he must have been injured so
as to be unable to help himself, and ow-
ing to smoke and panic, he was not
found until too late. damned in the
wreck, he had evidently
SLOWLY BURNED TO EAT
At this time-9:30 p. NIT is known
that six others miserably persisted at
once, or died soon after, and thirty 9TH
ers of the party we're badly burned, many
probably fatally owing to fears 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 rela-
tives of the men injured insisting on &C
c~ompanying the train, though they will
hardly be able to reach the place of the
selves out. Owing to the great devasta-
fire, communication is badly interrupted
and it is impossible to learn the names
of the men burned or those who are still
missing.
AS TO THE DAMAGE
it is known that forty million feet of
hemlock logs and timber and Is, 900 cords
of valuable bark have already been de-
stroyed, and the fires are raging without
any appreciable diminution. This even
ing people are praying for rain, as it
seems that nothing but a drenching will
quench the flames, which have grown so
fierce that they must either be extin-
guished by the floods of heaven or burn
out for lack of material. A million bea-
con lights seem burning from every
mountain and hill, and the air
is SO oppressive that many
Of the workers faint from exhaustion
and are dragged away from the flame
that has done nothing as yet but steadily
advance. Late dispatches from Austin,
confirm former reports. The body OF
Superintendent Badger has been found