Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1908-08-03
TOday's Telegraphic News
The British Columbia Fire.

The British Columbia flre.
Cranbroo1, B. O., Aug. 3.-Five
hundred persons are dead, ten thousand
homeless, and 500, 900, 600 loss is al
ready the fruits of huge forest fire rag
ing through east Kootsnsy, according to
reports received here today, which say
the flames are sweeping mountiln and
volley over q region of one hundred
miles square. Feroie, B. O., has been
wiped out with loss of "A lives and
Michel, with 1856 people, ii miles
away, was at last accounts in the centre
Of a raging furnace, which may kill
every one of its people. Hosmer, Shar-
wood, and Olsen, with total populs-
ton of l ,675, are also meuaced by the
flames aud will almost certainly be de-
stroyed. From every POINT tales OF
death and ruin are pouring in. AT
Camp Number 4, of the Elk River Lum-
Der Company, 81 men and 2 women
have been burned to death and through
out the whole of the fire swept region
scores of isolated SIT lements have been
wiped out. How many have been lost
will not be known for days as the whole
country is one mighty furnace, with its
inhabitants fleeing.
Besides the groups of refugees on the
mountain tops every little valley prairie
has it, cluster OF terror-stricken people.
10 the battle ID confine the flames
which are sweeping the country, hum
dr.ds of men have been badly burned
and 10 many cases have persisted.
Dreadful az the loss of life in the town
| il, it will be found small in comparison
with the number Of lives sacrificed at
Outlying camps.
To add to the horror of the confagra-
ton, is the fer that the flames may
| catch the many coal mines and oil wells
of the region.
The railway company has instructed
1 it, agents to receive all consignments OF
food and clothing for the victims of the
flames free of charge for transport 't'on.
Appeals for aid to Sir Wilfred Laurierj
Premier of the Dominion, which have
been wired to o taWs, and to the provin-
cisl government at Victoria, have start
ed both to The work of relief.
The CONFEDERATION is the most disas-
lrous of the kind which ever visited the
Canadian Northwest, and is ranked
among the holocausts as second only t.
the San Francisco disaster.
The territory visited runs from the
Koot,nay river on the west, to Crows
Mes. Pass on the east, and from the in
ternational boundary to a point some
miles Nor of FOIt Steele. The forest
frs which have been r5giDg in The Elk
River Valley fer a month, Saturday
morning st ed their n arch Of dest'uc-
on when a gale blew up from the Tes' ,
irving the flames rapidly eastward.
Scores of mining settlements are
directly in the path OF the flames and a
further holocaust is feared unless these
places are warned at once, In Ernie,
the only buildings left standing are six
small structures on Elk river, the Offices
of the Crows Nest Coal Company, and
the Fixes Wood Warehouse. Every
stick of property owned by the Great
| Northern Railway Company is gone, and
the huge sticks of coal, about a million
tons, in al, ere in flames. This morn.
logs report, were that the flames had
penetrated the coal mines in e vicin t.
and,if this Is true the loss msy be meal
cnlsble.
Fernie, B. c. Aug. 8. One hundred
and seventy persons are estimated to
be dead in this vicinity By the forest
fires according to Thomas Biggs, secre-
tary of The Miners Uuiou. He places
the property loss in the town aud the
surrounding mine at IS, O0O, 600. Prob
ably the towns of Nosmer, and Michel,
which at first we're thought destroyed,
have been st least partially saved. Al
Hosmer buildings were being dynamit:d
when refugees who have just arrived,
here left that settlement
Vancouver, B. o. Aug. 3.-RepoIt'
from Fernie snd the surrounding tOwns
were received here today which indicate
lhst the less of life will probably reach
st least 800 and that the loss in property
will be greater than even the 20, 900, OOC
which was st first estimated. Hundreds
OF persons, reports from Sparwood say,
have been cut of in that section.