The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-16
IN FOREST FIRES
Dreadful Scenes and Experiences
Duplicated Year by Year.
Lite Hell of Fiames-A Whole Train
load of Brave Men Swallowed in
= Fiery Tu,Ihoi-Refuge in Wa
tercOur6es.
rCOPYRIoHT. 1924

ICoPYRIGBT. 1924
Even as the awful power Of that nat
ural phenomenon which men call fire
was most lamentably shown at Phil
9ips, Wis, the other day, SO, also, have
been gloreously exhibited during the
period that has since elapsed, those
optimistic and sympathetic elements or
human nature without which man
could never have been able to make
this earth fit habitatiOn for anything
but bowling wild beasts. Already the
iblacl1ened remains that were left by
the forest fires have been partially
cleared away and the timbers of fresh
houses and stores and mills are begin
ming to shUw themselves. bright and
new against the charred soil, and,
THANKS to the practicable and char
stable form which the sympathy Of
their fellowmea and women in various
parts Of the country has taken, none OF
those left homeless and destitute has
suffered longer than was actually nee
essarT to convey supplies from the
places of giving 10 the place Of need.
These are things that should and do
6lI the minds of all good Americans with
pride and satisfaction. Disaster will
pone. In America as elsewhere, but it
cannot east down Americans for long,
nor will Americans who have them
selves escaped calamity ever turn
deaf ear 10 the cry from those who
have suffered
There are destructive fires some
where in the forests OF the United
States every year, but in 1913, 1854,
1851, 1854, 1857, 1889 and1s91 the de-
struction was so great as to render
those years especially notable. The
fires OF 1913 were mostly in the valleys
of the Ohio and the Wabash, and an
Enormous amount Of property was de-
etroyed. Fortunately, no lives were
lost, and this was due principally to
The facS that the region visited
hbounds IN small water courses, to the
shallow valleys OF which the people re-
treated and from which the flames
turned back, most of the damage being
done on the ridges. Many people
saved their lives that year by rushing
into soft swamps and boGs and bury
ing themselves up TO their necks IN the
tated Wisconsin, as have the fires OF
Ehis year, and were almost con-
temporary with the great Confiagration
which destroyed the metropolis of the
middle west. The fires of 1881 were in
Michigan, and those of 1887 swept over
Kansas, Nebraska and the Indian ter
Fitory. Prairie fires began where the
ITvoods left off, and carried the sheet OF
FLAMES across vast stretches of level
country to other forests. Thousands
npon thousands of valuable range cat
tie were destroyed that year.
The horrors OF forest fires aside, no
phenomena of nature, unless ii be vol
earic erUptiens, produce spectacles
half so grand. The sky is filed with
Eense black smoke which hangs over
the doomed territory Ike huge murl1y
CANOPY, and through which the rays Of
she sun struggle red and faint. Below,
the flames, crimson, pale yellow and
sometimes 50 intense as 90 be almost
white, blaze and roar IN fiery pillows.
AT night their glare is reflected upon
the inl1Y mass above and they cast long,
rveird shadows, sometimes miles away.
There are times when SO great is the
amount Of air consumed by the blazing
forests that the current Of supply
ZONES TO be like g. rushing. mighty
Fyind- So strong have these air streams
been in cases as to lift people from
their feet and blow down light build /
hngs- So fierce a fire as this progresses |
with amazing rapidity, and the hapless |
wretch who Is cEertal1en in the reoesses !
Nof the woods by such a fire is hopeless /
4ly lost.
\ There were many such instances dur |
Hng the great fires that swept parts of /