Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1910-08-28
Refugees Confirm Reports Of
Wholesale Loss of Life in
Burned Country Number Of
Dead May Never Be Known,
IMPOSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY
BODIES OF MANY VICTIMS
CorpSes Turned to Charcoal
and Fall to Pieces When
Effort Is Made to Remove
Them for Burial,

iBy Morning journal SneeiAl Hassss Wlrsl
Spokane, Wash. Aug. 97--Twc
hundred members of the Idaho mill
tarN We're sent from their camps al
Occur D'Alene today 70 ST. Joe 70
fight the forest fires which threaten
the destruction Of the town. The rail-
road has 100 men engaged and the
Occur D'Alene Timber Protective ass
aociation also has force
On the Boville branch Of the Mil
waukee railroad 20 men are fight
ing very large fire that is moving
north There Is no wind and the
men are able 10 hold the fire IN
check, body of fine timber IL
threatened
The fire on Marble creek, south of
the st. doe, are also alarming Food
has TO be packed forty miles TO the
fire fighters.
Persons who returned today from
the burned country say that there
has been Ho eXagPeration in the
newspaper reports OF loss OF life or
destruction of property In the Mon
tana and Idaho forest fires The for
est service is unable 10 check up it's
men and to say positively how many
are missing
ON saturday afternoon. August 90,
there we're $50 forestry men In the
field. There was record of their
names when they We're engaged, hut
some Of the timekeepers have been
hurud to death and with them the
lists Of employees, Wages are due the
men, and II they do not cali for them
it VIII be assumed that the men are
dead.
Forestry officers say they do not
know how many men have been lost,
that when the rangers go ont to cut
trs Ie 4 i'm.
Der, they viii find many skeletons.
The lest men were nearly an laborers
picked up by the employment
agencies of Spokane and Missoua.
None of the graduates of the Yale
forestry school was killed or injured,
The eight men killed in the Bull
lion mine and thirteen killed on the
Big Fork Of the Occur D'Aene were
forest service employees, though not
included in the lists OF the district
officers at Missoula
While Supervisor Weigle AT wal
lace was gathering Information con-
cerning his missing rangers, he re-
ceived reports of others than forest
men killed, and the list OF these
totalled more than 100. These re-
ports were unofficial and unverified,
but they agree with the reports
brought TO Spokane by refugees.
1t was reported III Wdllhce tnWi u
number Of Japanese employees OF the
Milwaukee railroad were killed and
that numerous settlers, loggers and
miners perished. When the mining
and logging companies check up their
payrolls they viii find many en-
ployes missing, it Is believed. The
land office probably can account for
the settlers.
The dead bodies where fire has
swept directly over them seem to he
turned to charcoal Fingers. ears
and even arms drop off when the
bodies are touched, and Il Is best to
bury them where found The men
in tunnels are recognizable
and some of them roasted in creek
beds are not carboni2ed.
An entirely new government survey
of the Coeur D'Alene country must
be made The old boundaries were
fixed by landmark trees that have
been removed. and the settlers have
no way Of exactly locating their land.
OF the fifty injured in Wallace hos
ptals. an viii bear scars or other
marks to the grave. Those who In
hailed smoke are suffering from lung
trouble Half the patients sustained
broken legs OF arms, Many have pitt
fully scared faces. The number OF
injured IN the whole fire country runs
into hundreds. and while all are said
to hn recovering from their injuries,
in most cases they will all be distig-
ured.