Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-03
THE LATE REPROTS
Fires in ibe West Have Wiped Que Town Out of Existence
 Scenes of Horror.

test estimates of the dead in the Elk river district by bush fires which have been raging from Michel to Fernie is 150 persons. The prop erty loss is s5,000,O00 in Fernie and 5000 persons of that city's inhabi- tants are homeless. The residents have been taken in trains to places of safety and are now destitute. Thousands of dollars have been sent by Yves. ern Canadian cities this morning to the relief of the destl- ute. Medical supplies are greatly needed. Fernie, with it's lumber mills and railway terminals is wiped out. The fire is still raging around Hosmer and Sparwood, but Michel is safe, the wind having dropped last midnight. If a gale springs up that city will be again in danger soon. Seventy men in the camps of the Elk River company perished.
 An eye witness having seen the results of the fire at Fernie in an ln- terview says:
 "The damage cannot fall short Of $5, 100000, the greater loss falling on the Canadian Pacific railway. The Trites Wood and Lumber Co is wiped out. Fully 25,00O,0OO feet of manufactured lumber is gone There remains of what once was Fernie, 10 or II small cottages and five or six residences all situated near the park. There Is not store. bank. hotel or business concern ol any sort left standing except the or fees of the coal company, the Great Northern depot and water tank and the big concrete ware house of the Trites Wood Co.
 Fernie is wiped off the map and is not as it remains. of sufficient import ance to justify the maintenance Of a flag station. Over 5000 people, mostly women and little children, are being shipped to Cranbrook for tenn porary shelter.
 The relief committee organized by Mayor Frink has sent away two trains filled with provisions, blankets stoves, flour and requirements. Old Town, where most of the min- CTS resided soon burned and then the business portion caught fire. Large residential portions came last after the fine mills of the Elk River Lum- Der Co had been destroyed. The West Fernie bridges across Elk river could not be saved. Several people lost their lives trying to escape ovei the burning bridges. The fire spread with such rapidity that hardly any thing was saved. Numbers of people tfed to the river banks and sought safety by wading in the water. Others ran to the Canadian Pacific tracks where special trains were waiting tC convey the people to Michel but this trip could not be made because tho bridge it was learned between Hos mer and Michel had been burned out During the night the coal com company's office was used as a dis tributing point for food. Saturda! night was a frightful one and it wa! spent in getting many of the womer and children on the trains and start ing them for Cranbrook. During thu night the wind blew down and Sun day morning many of the men anC their stout hearted wives came il from the hills to which they had fled to view the smoking remains of theil city.
 Many narrowing tales were told One woman of West Fernie had jus emerged from her home which was or fire. She dropped dead of heart dis ease. The neighbars buried her il her garden and then ran for theii 1 lives.