The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-10-23
TOWNS BURNED
WITH HEAVY
loss Of LIFE
Reports From Forest Fire Swept
Country Increase Gravity
OF Situation.
RELIEF TRAIN IS WRECKED
Fifteen Passengers Fleeing From
Burning Town Are Cremated
in Wreck.
DEATH AND RUIN EVERYWHERE
Whole Northern Section of Michigan
Is Ablaze-Several Towns
Are in Peril.
DEATH AND RUIN EVERYWHERE

port received from the forest fire
swept country to the northeast of this
city increases the extent and gravity
of the fire situation and the death
list which started yesterday with the
cremating of fifteen people in the
Metz relief train is steadily growing.
Pressure Isle and ~Cheboygan counties
are all atlame, and the seVenty-ive
miles between this city and the city of
Cheboygan are reported to be almost
a solid mass of fire. Alpena county is
ablaze in every direction. Reports of
fatalities are coming in from many
places, but it has been impossible as
yet to compile anything like an au-
thentic life of the fire victims in the
burned district.
Villages Are Destroyed.
From Metz township the cremation
is reported of Henry Kemps, his wife
and TWO children, in their farm house,
with a third child missing and proba-
bly, burned to death in the fields. Boil
ton, South Rogers and Metz are
among the destroyed villages. La
Rogue is threatened and there is little
hope but that it will be DESTROYED be-
fore morning. Only the church is
left at the village of Cathro, and it is
crowded with refugees from the vii
lage and nearby farms. A report
brought i'll from Altoona county says
a strip twenty miles wide, from Hub
bard lake to the Au Sable river, is
burning.
Fifty Farms Swept by Fire.
More than fifty farms are reported
to have been swept by the fires and
the buildings destroyed. At Presque
Isle, on Lake Huron, Keeper Clarity
was compelled to abandon the govern
ment fog signal and fee for his life.
Wire communication throughout the
burned district has been very slow
and uncertain. Scores of poles have
been destroyed and many miles of
wires are down. With improved com
munication to-day, it is feared that the
death list and the amount of property
loss will be materially greater.
Spend Night Of Horror.
Sixty passengers on a train which
left Cheboygan Thursday night for
this city spent a night of horror at La
Rogue. Flames surrounded the train
and 1t was impossible to proceed or
retreat from them. Huddled in their
cars the terrified passengers spent the
night in momentary expectation that
the train would be consumed. 1t was
saved, however. by hard work, and
the passengers came on to Alpena
yesterday afternoon. Rogers City was
threatened yesterday afternoon. but
when the last report came out it was
hoped that the town could be saved,
Two Cities Threatened.
Both Cadillac and Traverse Citv re.
port that the fires in the northeastern
part Of the state have started again
with great force tn are threatening
those cities. The fire is only a omar
ter of a mile away from Traverse CITY
Oh the southwest.
From the Upper Peninsula came re-
ports that the fires in Chippewa and
Foughton counties are very danger
Gus and spreading rapidly.
Fifteen Burned to Death.
Alpena, Mich, Oct. 1S.-Fifteen neo-
pie lost their lives last night in the
burning of the Detroit & Mackinaw
relief train which was carrying the In.
habitants of the little village of Metz
twenty-three miles north of here in
safety from the forest fires which
were sweeping away their homes. The
Inflated train was ditched by snread.
ing rails at Nowicki siding. q few
miles south of Metz, and the terrified
refugees were forced to abandon the
cars and rush for safety either down
the track with burning forests on
either side, or into the plowed fields
near the siding.
Flee Through Fire.
Brakeman William Barrett sprang
into the water tank behind the engine
only to be literally boiled to death as
the flames swept w it. Engineer
Foster and Conductor Kinville fed