Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-09-07
lIORRORGROWS
Death List at HinCkleV and
Surrounding Towns on
the Increase.
WILL REACH FOUR HUNDRED.
Nothing Accurate Known Un-
til a Thorough Search
Is Made.
WILL REACH FOUR HUNDRED.
WAS A CYCLONE OF FLAME.
The Terrible Fire Famed on
by a Wind of Sixty Miles
an Hour.

DULUTH, Sept. 4.-The number of
dead in the great fire is more than 800.
It is probable that the real figure is
nearer 400. Of these over 200 are at
Hinckley. Out Of all this number there
are yet but 80 who can certainly be
identified.
At Pokegama the list numbers so and
at Sandstone 80. Undoubtedly large
number living on farms and in out-of-
the-way places persisted, and their bod
les will be found later.
Every hour fresh news increases the
estimates of losses of life. Many of
those who have returned say it is an
utter impossibility to give any guess as
to the total number Of deaths, nor will
there be any accurate statement until
parties Of searchers are sent out from
the railroads at intervals of every mile
or two and thorough patrol of the
burned district made.
"A cyclone OF lames
1t is not until now that any plausible
explanation of the terrible destruction
can be given Not until now that one
can understand why a passenger train
on the tracks and under control could
be destroyed in a few minutes and the
swamps and rivers dried up as by
drouth. Survivors say there was cy-
clone Of fame. It could be lilzened only
to the rolling up Of a hurricane or the
burst Of a. tornado, the wind being fire
and the smoke death.
Before the fire struck the doomed SET
Elements there was a mighty wind,
chimneys being blown down, barns
toppled over and hay stacks leveled. It
blew at the rate of 60 miles an hour.
The fire,
Famed by This Fearful Gale,
went onward with the leaps of a demon.
Stumps, logs and buildings, thousands
of feet from the nearest flames or
sparks, burst into fire, as if the very air
were infammable gas.
III a farming district fully 800 miles
long the fire licked up all the vegetable
matter in the soil itself, and there is
now nothing left of prosperous farms
but burned and broken rock covered by
a few inches Of ashes
Thirty people who spent Saturday
night in lake near Finlayson, stand
ing up to their chins in water all the
time, say the flames seemed almost
alive. They would see a cloud Of fire
miles away and high in the sky. It
would sweep along and down, bounding
to the earth and up again,
Rolling on Like e. Huge Billow.
These pillows passed over them all
night, sometimes coming so close to the
water that it seemed as if they could
reach up and touch the flame. At such
times they would get completely under
the water.
Louis Mottez, a farmer, who saved
himself by getting into dry well with
pt'AAo VI VNVCA oAAIA UAauhCcS duu SCdy Lily
there all night, has identified some 81
bodies found by the relief expedition
from here. They are all settlers in one
place. Nearly all the bodies found so
far are almost if not entirely naked
Only little charred clothing about
and under them show that they were
dressed.
Brought in Survivors.
It was 7:30 Monday morning before
the relief train which left here at 4:15
p. M. Sunday on the Duluth road re-
turned with about $50 refugees who
tramped it across the country from
Sandstone.
At 1920 train was sent out consist
ing of three coaches, a baggage car and
two air brake box cars, with large
amount of provisions for settlers in the
vicinity of Rutledge. At $50 the
cheering news came from Rutledge,
which is as far as the wire worked, that
rain was falling at all the stations be-
tween here and Rutledge; that the fires
were dying out, and that no further
trouble need be feared, provided q
strong wind does not come up.
TWENTY-TAREE DEAD OR MISSING
Less of Life 1t Pokegama Station Not Ac.
curately known.