Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-26
sasrIs. OF FIRE.
warning IRON The Great Western Fires ant
the Maine Fire Of 1925.

feaders OF the JOURNAL, however, NAV be
aware that Maine once took her turn in
sacii baptism by fire. Not that lives
were lost, but great confagration which
laid waste hundreds of square miles of
forest, destroyed villages, and endangered
the lives of many people did once occur
here.
Seventy years ago the face of the State
OF Maine wasquite different from what il
Is now. Settlements back from the tide
wafer were then generally new. The
riscataquis valley in particular was then
niiiDg up with settlers. The farms were
Just being cleared, while the greater part
OF the country was still covered with
primeval forest.
Inc season OF 1925 was by all accounts
very dry one. One historian says that
no rain fell for two months. Yet the settlers
IN their haste to get more land under Gull
tiva'ion paid no heed to the risks they were
fixing. Clearing ires were set without,
scrupie, and handled with no more than
usual care.
at last, in the evening of the 9th of Octo-
Der strong wind sprung up. 1t quickly
increased to gale. The settlers fires were
famed to blaze, and soon spread through
the clearings into the standing growth.
Brands were carried long distances to start
the flame in new places, and the body of
hre, when fairly started, the gale drove, as
observers say, with the speed of horse.
Starting from many points and travelling at
speed, the fire was all through the country
at once. SO surprising and terrifying vas
this feature of it, SO impossible was it to
stop or mitigate it, so vide spread and
severe was the destruction it wrought, that
the fire gained credit, in the minds of the
superstitiouS, for supernatural origin.
Most damage to settlers was done in the
towns of Parkman and Ripley. For the
purpose of learning the extent of
the fire, and the nature of the
growth that came up after it, | took
tramp through that region last November.
Every old settler when interviewed had his
sorry to tell. The people fought the fire
till that was found OF no avail. Then they
devoted themselves to saving what was
possible. Household goods were piled into
the wells, then the people betook themselves
to the ploughed land or the stream beds for
safety. They tell how the air was full of
brands which set fire to everything inflam
mable. The copfigration surrounded them
on all sides. So impressive was it and so haz-
ardous their own situation that people WHO
were then no more than four or five years
old have distinctly stamped on their minds
tie terror of that night and the widness
Of its scenes. Numerous sets of buildings
were destroyed in Parkman and Cam
bridge, and some l think elsewhere. A
smoke hung over the country for
weeks, and the fire itself was only
finally put out when the rains of
late fall came down.
One interesting sequence of the crest fire
was poem which was written at Parkmsn
to describe it. That poem should be in the
collections of the Maine Historical Society,
if it is not already there. The first stanza
of it, quoted from memory, is as follows:
At Paikman Corner all was well
At time of setting sum-
But ere the hour of nine had struck
The horrid scene begun.
Not so exactly truthful probably, and
lacking therefore in one of the elements of
true poetry, is the following, dealing with
the extent and rapidity of the fire:
Forty-two miles BY one hundred
The great fire did extend;
All was done within eight hours.
Not exec cding over ten.
| have to confess that my gravity on
first hearing some of these stanzas was not
equal to the gravity of the situation they
were written to depict.
The same month and day, according to my
information, as this fire in central Maine,
occurred the great fire in the region of the
Miramchi river in New Brunswick, in
which so many lives we're lost. Many have
supposed they were the same fire, but
while perhaps they sprung from the same
conditions and cause, they had no connec-
ton in space. The fire in Maine, starting
probably from the source | have named,
did, however, spread north and east into
the timberlands. and burnt there for several
weeks. 1t was the greatest timberland fire
that ever occurred in the State. The moth
line of the burnt district passes north of
K,tahdin Iron Works and from there
easterly to the Twin lakes. On the south it
reached in places into the third board of
ms below the Piscataquis river. Westerly
II reached into May field, wellington and
Harmony, while it swept east to the Penoo-
scot river. A rough estimate places the
territory covered at something like one
thousand square miles. Its boundary
has been ascertained for its bearing
on the FOREST VA tuC Seote' "'iA -
connection with much information on the
growth that has come up since, aud studies
as well on burns of later date, will be found
in the report of Mr.. Oak to the next Legls-
lature.
The warning from these great forest fires
should be neither disregsrded nor mistaken.
The combination of circumstances which
makes them possible is prolonged dry
weather, winds, and the deep vegetable
Mould of forest fioor-and then fire. A
large body of cultivated land protects itself,
40 that few settlements in Maine and no
considerable district that think of except
perhaps the rapidly opening farm lands or
Aroostook could be much endangered from
such cause. On the other hand the
chances of great forest fires are quite as
great as ever before, and every specially
dry season they are multiplied. Should a
great Gre get started in the backwoods some
favorable time, no human sgency could
atom il. Great money loss would be sus-
tanned. loss in which the whole community
would shars. The remedy is prevention.
AUSTIN CARY.
BANGOR, Me-, Sept. "a.
oUsil to the Chief"
This ia half the title of an old song. The bal
anee IL. "who in triumph advances. The public,