Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-08-04

SCENE, arriving barely IN time TO pear
the citizens to safety.
Residents Flee From Burning Town.
When the trains arrived the town
was smouldering Many Of the resi-
dents had not even saved their clothes
Before the wires went down Mayor
W. w. Tuttle of Fernie appealed for
help to the mayors Of Winnipeg, Van
couver, Victoria, New Westminster,
! Spokane and other cities.
| ALI day the Great Northern and the
Canadian Pacific roads have been
rushing relief trains as near to the
stricken towns as 1t was possible to
proceed.
Eighteen hundred people were taken
out Of Fernie. Tales of horrors are
continually reaching here, but the peo-
pie are wonderfully calm and collect
ed, Notwithstanding the imminent dan
ger to every one.
Whole Valley as Furnace.
Last night the whole valley was a
seething furnace. Driven by the
fierce winds, the fires are leaping
miles at time and continually break
ing out at unexpected points.
Towns, villages, mining and lumber
camps, mills, railway stations and
yards and other property are being
destroyed like finder. Everywhere
bridges are burned, railroad tracks
are warped and twisted, telegraph
wires are literally melted, and for
miles not a pole is standing.
Women Fight the Flames.
Stories Of heroic deeds are coming
in with the relief parties that have
returned from the stricken territory.
At Sparwood a desperate fight was
made to save the property of the Spar
wood lumber camps.
Women fought the flames with the
men, and the wife Of Manager Fores-
ter Of the Sparwood Lumber Co., es-
pecially distinguished herself Side
by side with her husband, Mrs. For
ester back fired" on the edge of the
blazing woods, her dress several times
catching fire from the burning shrub
berry. Three men were burned to
death near her.
With her husband and thirty men
she finally fed to bare hill that al
ready had been burned clean by the
fire.
At Least 70 Killed In Fernie.
Not less than seventy lives were
known to have been lost in Fernie
alone.
In Nelson, which is fairly well in
touch with the situation, this estimate
is regarded as conservative The to-
tai death list in the valley may reach
twice that number when the full tale
of death is told.
The blaze first wiped out the great
mills of the Elk River Lumber COM
pany, through whose standing timber
1t had been famed by the high wind
early in the day.
Hemmed in by Flames.
The valley is narrow enough to en-
close the wind like a box-flume, and
when the fire finally did strike Fernle
it hit in dozen places at once The
people tried to scurry to burned-over
high places away from the river, but
many were hemmed in and burned or
killed by falling buildings.
The small cottages of the miners,
hundreds in number, burned in an
hour. When it was all over the only
buildings left were one store, an iron
warehouse, owned by the Trites Wood
company, the coal company's Office
building and five houses
At Michel four men died striving to
save the big bridge. Near Elk Peter
Miller was overtaken by wall Of
flame as he fed along the railroad
tracks and burned to death.
Total Loss May be $1o,ooo,0oo.
Throughout the valley are hundreds
of squatters and it is feared that
when the fire has spent itself and
news comes from the interior the
death list will be swelled appallingly.
Hundreds of injured and homeless
persons are being brought into Gran
brook. 1t is believed the total pros
erty loss will exceed S10,0000O0,