The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-04
Flames Roll Over a Large Sec.
tiOn of Oklahoma:
Four Persons Lose Their Lives
and Others Are Injured.
LAWTON IN DANGER.
Burned Territory Amounts to
Over 5000 Square Miles.
Property Destroyed Estimated
at Over 100000.

Hobart, Okla, March 4.-Reports
continue to come in of damage done by
the prairie fire and wind storm in the
Kiowa and Comanche country. Three
residences at Snyder. small town
near here, were demolished and seven
persons were injured. none it is be-
lieved fatally. At Mount Park several
houses were demolished and half
dozen persons were injured. none Sc
riously. A strip six miles wide and
nine miles long burned twenty miles
south of Hobart. The loss in the Kiowa
country will exceed s15O.0OO.
Lawton, Ok, March AT least four
persons perished, several others re-
ce1Ved mortal injuries, hundreds Were
rendered homeless and thousands of
dollars worth of property was destroy
ed in a prairie fire which has swept
over Southwestern Oklahoma.
D. Hammond. two unidentified wo-
men and an unidentified boy were burn
ed to death. All these persons lived in
the vicinity of Lawton.
John Hammond, a brother of D. Har-
mond, will die. Others who received
dangerous injuries are: Mrs. Hender-
son, widow who lived three miles
from Lawton, and her two daughters,
and A N. Crawford, A S. Strickland
and K E. Trasper were slightly burned
The territory devastated included ap-
proxImately three thousand square
miles. The fire started when the great
wind and sand storm was at its height.
Many wires are down and communica-
ton with several towns is cut off. For
this reason details of the catastrophe
n q hac hn
Information at hand places the property
losses as follows: Hobart, $4,000;
Vinson, $4,000; Lawton, $4,000; small
country towns, $4,000; farm property,
800, 900.
The fire started about nine miles
southwest of Lawton and for a time
this place was believed to be doomed
At midnight 5000 people of the city
were up to do battle with the flames.
Hundreds of women and children bum
died together their apparel and left the
city while the men remained for the
fight.
The advance line of the fire was fully
two miles in length and came in semi
circle great balls of fire were carried
high into the air and burst into frag-
ments like immense bombs. On the
ground bunches of burning grass, strips
of flaming timber, articles of household
goods brought across the blazing
prairie. rolled along, leaped all impede
ments, skipped avenues and flung
themselves into the faces of the bat
ting people, glided beneath houses and
barns and rolled down the streets, pass
ing on in their mad rush for liberty
and destruction
A thousand men turned their efforts
to checking the grass borders of the
reservation at the city limits. Water
from every source carried in every
conceivable way was distributed along
this line and carried all around the city
limits. This served the purpose of
checking the advancing lines of the
fire, but was of little avail in hinder
ing the continued rolling of the fire
brands into the streets of the city. In
more than hundred places the flames
arose from dwellings, barns and out
houses and wherever a blaze grew men
were present to quench it with water.
Stories are coming in of families
which lay out on the barren prairie
through the freezing night after the
storm had passed with only the thin
clothes on their backs as reminders or
once prosperous homes.
Hundreds of people are destitute and
are suffering intensely in the cold and
with the excruciating pains occasioned
by their burns. Clothes, medicine and
physicians are being sent out from all
the cities and towns of the district to
relieve the suffering. A corps of cav
airy from Fort Sill Is searching for
missing persons.
Anadarko, Okla, March 4-Fire
started in the horse barns at the fair
grounds adjoining Hobart on the north
about o'clock at night. A wind blow
ing at the rate of so miles an hour
famed the flames. Thirty-five thou
sand dollars worth of cottages and
dwellings, were burned, besides fifteen
trotting and running horses in the
stables.
Hobart, Okla, March 4.-The country
residence of S. E. West, seven miles
southwest of here, burned as a result
of the prairie fires. Samuel Christy,
living one mile south, lost his barn.
The wind has subsided and all danger
is now believed to be over.
The Mrs. Henderson mentioned in
the above dispatch as being severely
burned in the prairie fire at Lawton,
Ok, is the mother-in-law of H. R.
Jansen, an employe of the office of H.
u. Nudge, general manager of the Sam
ia Fe with headquarters in this city.
One of the two daughters also mention
ed in the dispatch is Mr.. Jansen's wife
who was visiting with her mother at
the time of the fire. Mr. Jansen left
Immediately for Lawton on hearing of
the fire