The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-05-13
TERRIFIC FOREST FIRES.
Seventy Men Hemmed in by Flames, aud
at Least q Dozen Perish.

A dispatch from Coudersport, Potter
county, under date of May 18th, gives
the following details of the fearful
holocaust that has been raging in that
vicinity for the past three days:
To night the pretty little lumber
and farming towns Of Austin, Costel.
10, Galeton and Moore's Run are on
the verge of a panic, two especially
being threatened with humiliation
from fires that seem to form an impen.
etrable wall on every side. For sew
eral days past the skies have been
lighted with fires, apparently in every
direction, but little fears were enter.
tanned by people living in the towns.
In spite Of every effort, however, the
flames crept steadily towards the
towns. At Moore's Run, on the Sin.
nemahoning road, a train load of rs
men, sen out from Austin last night,
had been fighting back the fire by
every conceivable means, 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 we're hemmed in by
the forest fire on one side, and a huge
skidway of logs on the other. 1t was
finally decided to dash past the burn.
ing skidway. As the blazing furnace
of logs was approached, the heat be,
came unbearable and the smoke so
binding and sitting, the men were
obliged to cover their mouths with
clothes. Just opposite the millions of
feet of burning logs, where the heat
aud smoke and flames we're the great.
est, a terrible thing occurred. The
engineer had forgotten that such great
heat would surely spread the rails,
and he pulled the throttle wider 10 the
hope of sooner escaping from a tor.
ment of heat aud smoke. Then there
was a lurch, an ominous heaving, and
a shrek Of despair as the train top
pied over in the hell of fire beneath.
A scene eDsued never to be forgotten
by those who escaped, though every
man will bear to his grave a mark of
that awful moment. The cars caught
fire like SO many paper p~laythings,
and the men within, half blinded and
scarcely realizing anything except
that they were being slowly roasted to
death, struggled fe%arfully to regain
the track, where safety lay, for a time
at least. Those u~niujured from the
fall and only smarting from the pain
of the intense heat, bravely turned
their burned, b~lackened hands to aid
their more unfortunate fellows. At
this hour, it is impossible to secure de-
tails, though enough is known of the
scene that followed the hurling of the
struggling mass of men into the fur.
mace Of fame, to say its like had never
occurred before. Supt. Badger, of the
SinDemahoning Valley Road, in
charge of The relief train, aud had
worked the hardest of all to ave the
properties of others, when the train
ditched aud rolled over so suddenly,
he must have been injured so as to be
unable to help himself and owing TO
the smoke and panic be was not found
until too late-jammed in the wreck
he had evidently slowly burned to
death. AT this time -9:30- 1T is
known that six others also miserably
persisted at once, or died soon after,
and 80 others of the party were badly
burned, many probably fatally, owing