The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-10-23
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,

Alpena, Mich, Oct. 1s.-Every re-
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 aflame, and the seventy.five
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 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 viii
lage and nearby farms. A report
brought in 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 train which
left Cheboygan Thursday night for
this city spent a night of horror at La
Rogue. Flames surrounded the train
and it was impossible to proceed or
retreat from them. Huddled in their
cars the terrified passengers spent the
night in momentary expectation that
in
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 City re-
port that the fires in the northeastern
part of the state have started again
with great force and are threatening
those cities. The fire is only a quar-
ter of mile away from Traverse City
On the southwest.
From the Upper Peninsula came re.
ports that the fires in Chippewa and
Houghton counties are very danger
GUS and spreading rapidly.
Fifteen Burned to Death.
Alpena, Mich, Oct. 18.-Fifteen peo-
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 spread
ing rails at Nowic;d siding, 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 over it. Engineer
Foster and Conductor Kinville fed