Connecticut western news., 1894-09-06
DEATH IN FLAMES.
SIX MINNESOTA TOWNS WIPED OUT
 BY FOREST FIRES.
Inc Thousand Persons May Have Perished. Hundreds of Backsnsd and Unrecognix- able Corpsss Have Been Recovered-A Train overtaksn by Flames.

Inc Thouaand Persons May Have Perished.
 Hundrsds of Blacksnsd and Unrecogniz-
 able Corpsss Have Been Recovered-A
 Train overtaksn by Flames. ST. PAUL, Sept. 3.-Six towns wiped out and more than 800 dead is the record made by the forest fires in this state in he last S6 hours
 In Hinoklsy, Sandstonec Pokcgama, -andstone Junction, Skunk Lake and Mission Creek there are S55 known dead. In addition several hundred are missing, while from l60 to 200 people were scatter. ed on farms throughout the district burn cd over
 The destruction was complete in most of the towns named, but some of the for est lands escaped The loss, however, will be in the millions, and the loss of life will not be definitely known for several days if ever.
 The relief trains carried supplies sent out from this city. Minneapolis, Duluth and other Minnesota towns, and the suffer CTS are being handsomely cared for at Pine City and other points
 Hinokley, Minn., half way between this city and Duluth, has been wiped out by forest fires, and the list of the dead may reach l, GOO. It will certainly exceed 5OO and the reports now being received would indicate that a larger figure may not be too great
 Other Towns Burned. It is feared that several other towns have suffered like fate as Hinckley. Milaca called for help, and the relief train from St. Cloud was unable to get beyond Bridgeman. Nothing further has yet been received from Milaoa, and how Al. not at this time be told.
 Bridgeman was apparently safe after a hard fight. The flames have, however, been very threatening around that town, and as it is very dry all over that part of the state the worst is feared. The little town of Mission Creek, some little distance north of Hinokley, Is re- | ported in ashes. Special trains were sent out both from St Paul and Duluth with full medicine stock and staff of phy | sicians.
 A private dispatch received from the burned district states that 25 dead bodies have already been recovered, so that the ! estimate made above may be considered as decidedly conservative
 The losses in the neighborhood of St. | Cloud, which is on the western edge of the fires, are estimated at $200, 900, and from that point east and north nearly everything is burned. The fires are rag | Ing in Becker and Aitken counties, where | many farmhouses and much grain have been lost, as we'll as the timber. A special from Pine City, Minn., says: | Estimate of the dead-Hinckley, 900 Sandstone, 46; Sandstone Junction, 25; l Pokegamn, 25; Skunk Lake, 29; miscella- neous, 80; total, 355.
 | The Burning of Hinckley. The story of the catastrophe which wiped out the material possessions that | had made Hinckley a busy prosperous | little city Is short one. The town was | built of wood. The schoolhouse erected last year at a cost of $l0, 900 and one half of the Duluth roundhouse were the only brick structures in the city. By one of | those peculiar freaks for which there is no | accounting the Eastern Minnesota round house and water tank on the southwest ern edge of the town, almost in the woods moro remarkable from the fact that it stood directly in the path of the flames which seem to have jumped 1t as oleanly as if playing leapfrog.
 1 The townspeople had been apprehensive for days. The smoke rolling up from the | south told story unmistakably plain to | those accustomed to a wooded country | The fire kept advancing famed by the | wind, which was blowing gale. | About II o'clock at night the fire com pany got out their engine and laid an l, 500 foot line of hose to the southern out | skirts of the town. The hose was all too short for the measure of protection desir- ed, and telegram was sent to Rush City for more. Five hundred feet were sent but 1t never reached Hinckley. | ,afv nft tho xS1la in ha north fork made by the crossing of the Duluth and Eastern tracks-the latter to the east and the former on the west On the west side of the Duluth tracks were few small houses belonging to the | railway employees. The firemen's 8 atren- tion was mainly in the direction of keep ing the fire away from them, as the main business part of the city was built in solid | ly just across the track.
 About o'clock in the afternoon the fire literally jumped into the town. Its approach was not gradual. It did not eat its way along, devouring everything in it's path but came in huge leaps, as if to overtake everything fleeing before 1t and then burned back at Its leisure.
 It Is described by those who witnessed Its onward progress at Hinckley and else | where as if 1t were forced along by cy- clones of its own generation. The intense heat would develop veritable whirlwind | of flame that actually twisted of poplar trees several inches in diameter and car ried them forward for some 40 to 80 rods, there let them fall and begin the work of | devastation anew.
 The fire first struck Hinckley on the east side of the Duluth track, and brave fighters for the first time gave up the un- equal battle and, already too late in many instances, turned their attention to their personal safety. The Eastern Minnesota train from the south had just come in, and the people of the panic stricken city fled to it for safety. A number of box cars were coupled on and filled and covered with men, women and children.
 Fleeing From the Flames.
 Some were bareheaded, some were coat less, some few clutched a pitiful bundle of the more precious of their portable pos sessions. Families were separated; chill dren joined the throng and left parents. In all there was motley crowd of about 450 or more people.
 The train pulled out just ahead of tho fire and succeeded in ultimately reaching Duluth. This circumstance, while fortu- nate in a degree that cannot be estimated, had made the confusion greater, for 1t Is not known who escaped in thls way and many people are reported dead who may be in safety.
 Had not this number of people, largely women and children, left the doomed city when they did, the loss of life would have been increased, for their presence would have added immeasurably to the subse- quent confusion.
 About the same hour the accommoda- tion train on the Hinckley and St. Cloud branch left for the latter place with about 25 passengers. Its path lay directly across the path of the fire, and their situation speedily became desperate. The ties were
 burning the rails were warming. ana tn.
 trestles where sagging under the train
 The smoke had increased SO that the en
 gineer was helpless He could not see thu : train hahind him Rnrnlno trAes lay or