The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-10-20
FIFTEEN PERSONS PERISH
IN A FLAMING TRAIN
Rails Spread, Cars PIunging Into
a CuIvert in Michigan.
FOREST FIRES COST MANY LIVES
Flames at Sides of Track Had Warped
Rails and Locomotive Stalled i'll
Midst of Roaring Furnace
Metz, Mich, Destroyed.


Metz, Mich, Destroyed.
Alpena, Mich - Cooped up in a
iitched relief Grain with blazing for
est fires on both sides of the tracks,
The flames forming an arch over the
cars, twenty-five persons, most OF
them women and children, were
burned to crisp.
Fifteen of the unfcrtunates, at
east nine of them small children and
three women, their mothers, were
.remated in an iron gondola car. The
body of this car became red hot and
roasted the poor people who had
climbed into it as place of refuge.
Practically all that was found in the
.ar when it was examined we're fifteen
sharred skulls.
Arthur Lee, the fireman on the
rain, leaped into the water tank of
The locomotive and was literally
boiled to death William Barrett,
he brakeman, was incinerated on the
engine.
Foster escaped by crawling along the
racks on their hands and knees with
The forests on either side roaring like
furnaces.
The exact number burned may
aever be known There was no rec
ord of those on the train. They
:umbled aboard pellmell at Metz, a
little town which was threatened on
Ill sides by forest fires, which were
weeping toward it almost in a circle.
Metz is twenty-five miles north of
acre on the Detroit and Mackinac
Railway. 1t was not the only place
threatened when the forest fires sud
lenly became threatening again and
burned with a greater fury than they
lid few weeks ago. From all over
Presque Isle County, in which this
,ity is situated, reports of furious
fires came, and then communication
was cut off. Telephone and telegraph
wires were rendered useless by the
intense heat, and there are many
small places which may have been
wiped out with their inhabitants, but
It will be days before the full extent
Of the horror can be ascertained.
Metz before communication was cut
off. The village had about 100 inhab-
ltants, and their extreme danger
caused the officers of the Detroit and
Mackinac Railway to order that re-
lief measures be taken.
An improyised rescue train was
nurriedly made up at Metz. 1t con-
sisted of eight box or freight cars and
gondola car. The train was ready
TO leave late in the afternoon, but the
householders of Metz insisted upon
delaying its departure until they
could load furniture, stores and other
possessions on the cars. Had the
train started with the residents of
the place, and without waiting for the
furniture and other goods, the horri
BILE catastrophe that followed would
have been averted.
Not only were the residents of Metz
on the train, but refugees from the
farming districts who had fled into
the little village, also got into the
cars. These accessions from the
country districts made the total on
the train an unknown quantity.
With it's load of frightened men,
women and children the train pulled
out of Metz about midnight and
started for the north. There were
flames along the tracks on both sides
and the roar of the burning woods
rose above the sound of the engine
The train proceeded toward the north
as far as Hawks Station, about half
way between Metz and Millersburg.
There the flames were sweeping
across the track so fiercely as to make
further progress in that direction
impossible.
The train was Immediately headed
back toward the south and Alpena.
The necessity for returning again
into the flame ridden section from
which they had been fleeing increased
the terror of the passengers aboard
the Inflated extemporized relief train
AS they were rushing through the
fire and smoke the train struck Gull
vert which had been burned through.
1t left the rails and went into the
ditch, according to the meagre reports
received through the two trainmen
who escaped,
The point where the train was
ditched was place called Nowicki' s
Siding. On either side of the track
were piled immense quantities of
cedar ties, posts and poles, hemlock
bark and other infiammable forest
products.
John Nowicki's house stood just
back from the track. Both Nowicki
and his wife were burned to death in
their home, which was demolished
In the gondola car where the
fifteen skulls were found were Mrs
George Cicero, of Metz, and three
children Mrs. John Konitzy, of Metz
and three children, and Mrs. Edward
Hardies, of Metz, and three children
These poor mothers and their chill
dren account for twelve of the fifteen
skulls found
Word has been received from
Hurst, small village in Presque Isle
County, that Henry c. Kemps, his
wife and two children were burned
to death in their township The -four
bodies were found in the ruins of the
farmhouse.
Chicago Has a 81 1000, 900 Fire.