St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-18
Frightful Work of Forest
Fires in Wisconsin.
ASHLAND NARROWLY ESCAPES.
over a Hundred Families
Burned Out Near There.
THE WATER WORKS GIVE OUT:
Nearly Two Hundred Miles
Covered By the Fire.
SEVERAL BRIDGES ARE on FIRE.

ASHLAND, Wis, Sept. IA PRAYER
for rain is the hopeless hope throughout
this part of Wisconsin, as the forest
flames continue to devour everything
before them. 1t has been an exciting
day for Ashland. Settlers are coming
IN from all directions. fighting for their
llVes. AT noon the people were called
from worship by fire alarms. The Gin
ders became almost binding all over the
city. AT O'Clock there was a wild cry
OF despair among the people living near
the Milwaukee, Lake Shore Il Western
railway shops. The water works had
given out and there was no water. The
chemical engines were brought, but 1t
was useless to try to stop the flames as
high gale of wind was blowing. There
are but very few wells in the citv. The
coal sheds caught fire, and the plucky
engineers soon had the thirty
dead locomotives fired up. rum
ming all rolling stock to the
lake front. Household goods have
been burned, and over a hundred tami-
lies are already homeless. The sun was
almost obscured 10y the heavy clouds of
snake and cinders. Twenty me were
overcome in fighting the flames. and
taken to the hospital. The timber and
vegetation are like straw. No rain has
fallen since July 10. Three families
near Marengo have perished. There
was no help to go to them The firemen
with wet spongeS and goggles cannot
remain long in the immense heat and
smoke. At Parishvilie the large iron
plant is burning. A large number of
women and children. who had rushed
to the lake front. were only saved by a
desperate struggle. The fire Is the
same that has been raging south the
past week, and the heaviest part
did not reach here until today.
1t was hopeless struggle i'm
the eastern part of the city.
Settlers arriving have pitiful stories to
tell, aud are being cared for by those
who still have houses. One man, named
Egstrnm, was driven crazy by the loss
of his wife and family OF two children.
His hair and eye-IaShes and clothes
were burned from mis- body when dis
covered. As near as can be estimated
the fire now covers nearly 200 square
miles, and is sweeping north. The
damage to standing pIne will be very
heavy. and apprOXImltes not less than
S5,0O0.OO0. A wOman and baby, sup
posed TO be the wife of settler, was
picked up in an insenslble condition to-
night near White river road. The child
died soon after arriving here. The
mother is i'll deliriun, and it is sup
posed that her husband perished at
Odanah reservation. Indians are
camping on a raft in Bad river,
and are hemmed in by an arch
way of flames. All communication
Was cut off from surrounding small
towns today. 1t is impossible to give de-
tails of today's holocausts and losses,
but If rain does not come tonight the
death list will run into the hundreds.
MA REACH MILLIONS.
If the hres that swept down on Ash
land today burned path from Bad
River reservation all the way to the
borders of the city, the loss will easily
creep far up into the millions in this
county alone. Upon the reservation
itself there is still con-
siderable amount of uncut pine,
though the choicest has long
since been stripped off, and the financial
destruction in the wake of the fiery vls-
itor will be heavy from this cause
alone. The territory suffering the most
severely, according to the best intelli-
gence obtainaDle tonight, lies south
and east OF Ashland. 1t probably
includes most of the area
lying north and west of the
White river, a logging stream of some
width, in Ashland county. 1t is also
not improbable that the fam es have
swept the productive territory east of
White river to Bad river. The town of
White River is about ten miles south of
the Wisconsin Central road, and reports
of damage done come from that point
Odanah, directly east of the Milwaukee,
Lake Shore d Western road, is the
most distant point in that direction
from which comes reports of the disas
Ter caused by the onsweeping
HURRICANE OF FLAME.
1t would therefore seem as if the fire
has traversed almost half the entire
brea dth of the country from a point
about ten miles south, not ceasing its
resistiess rush north until it reached
Lake Superior, and continuing west
into Douglas county. Of course. it is
hardly likely that the path of the fire
is SO wide as may have been sug-
gested, but from the intelligence
received so far the people here having
interests in the southern section of the
county have nearly as much to fear.
Pine forests are not alone the prev of
the foe. In the country along the Bad
and White rivers the soil is fertile, and
Is thickly settled by farmers who cut
away the woods and built for them
selves homes in the edges of the trees.
Scores of these have been swept away.
There are number of small towns and
villages through this section that may
have
SHARED IN THE DISASTER,
Marengo, White River, High Bridge
and numerous others. If the path of the
flames took in such settlements as these,
then woe and death has surely been left
in the wake. Parishville, the suburb to
the east, which is reported on fire to-
night, is composed of about 100 buildings
in addition to the big planto the Parish
Manufacturing company, employed in
the making of mining and s.21A