Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-21
HISTORIC FOREST FrREs.
One Ut New Brunswick In fs25 Woc
 the Most Disastr0us. t3

I j. One at New Brunswick In fs2B Wa
 the Most Disastrous.
 The terrible work of the danes which have burned over and destroys ed hundreds of thousands of acres Qg timber and property to the value or millions in the Lake states. recalls to memory other great forest hres which have attained historic import ance. ~
 One of the earliest of these was the great Miramichi firs of 1925. It began its greatest destruction about 1 o'clock In the afternoon of October of that year. at 8 place about so miles above the town of Newcastle, on the Miramichi river, in New Brunswick. Before 10 o'clock at night 1t was 20 miles be- low Newcastle. In nine hours 1t had destroyed belt of forest so milen long and 25 miles wide. Over more almost every living thing was kill- ed. Even the fish were afterwards found dead in heaps on the river banks. Five hundred and ninety | buildings were burned, and num- | Der of towns, including Newcastle, ] Chatham and Douglastown, were de- stroyed One hundred and sixty persons perished, and nearly thou sand head of stock. The loss from | the Miramichi fire is estimated at l $300, 900, not including the value of | the timber
 In the majority of such forest fires as this the destruction of the timber is more serious loss, by | far, than that of the cattle and buildings, for it carries with 1t tho impoverishment of a whole region for tens or even hundreds of years afterwards. The loss of the stum- page value of the timber at tho l time of the fire Is but small part of the damage to the neighborhood. The wages that would have been earned in numbering, added to the value of the produce that would have been purchased to supply the lumber camps, and the taxes that would have been devoted to roads and other public improvements, fur nish a much truer measure of how much, sooner or later, it costs re- zion when its forests are destroyed by fire.
 The Peshugo fire of October, 1871, was still more severe than the Mi- l ramichi. It covered an area of moro | than 2,000 square miles in Wiscon- sin, and involved loss in timber aud other property of many millions of dollars. Between 1,200 and 1,500 persons perished, including nearly half the population of Peshtigo, at I thof trr of srh tants. Other fires of about the sai1e | time were most destructive in Michi- | gan. A strip about forty miles wide and 1S0 miles long, extending across the central part of the state, from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, was devastated. The estimated loss in timer was about 1000, 100000 feet board measure and in money over $10,000,0 0,000. Several hundred per- sons perished.
 In the early part of September, 1881, great fires covered more than 1900 square miles in various parts of Michigan. The estimated loss in | property, in addition to many hun- dred thousand acres of valuable tim- Der, was more than $2,300, ,000. Over O,VUU pcT6OuS we're uudQc dSSLltuLcs and the number of lives lost Is vari- ously estimated at from 150 to 500. l The most destructive fire Of moro recent years was that which started near Hinckley, Minn, September l, 1894. While the area burned over was less than in some other great 1 fires, the loss of life and property was very heavy. Hinckley and six other towns were destroyed, about 500 lives were lost, more than 2,000 persons were left destitute, and the estimated loss in property of various kinds was $25 100000. Except for | the heroic conduct of locomotive en- gineers and other railroad men the loss of life would have been much | greater.
 This fire was all the more deplora- ble because 1t was wholly unneces- sary. For many days before the high wind came and drove it into nncon- trollable fury, it was burning slowly close to the town of Hinckley, and could have been put out.