The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-10
Forest Fires Cover Area 3OxS5
Miles in Extent.
KICKED MEN IN FACE.
Young Woman on Refugee Train
Proved Herself Heroine.
Saved Space in Her Car for the
Babies.

of the loss of life in the forest fires
which started Friday, wiped out sew
eral small towns, and are still raging,
range all the way from fifty to two
hundred. The property loss will mount
well into the millions.
The fire zone covers an area of S5
miles in length, from the gravel pit
| spur west of Warroad to Stratton. the
fourth station east of Rainey river,
and in width about thirty miles, cover
ing all the territory between Red Lake
and the Lake of the Woods. The fires
have wiped out the villages of Bau-.
dette, Spooner, Graceton, Pitt, Myron
and Malcolm. The last two named
places are small settlements in Boil
trami county, south of Warroad.
The greatest property loss occurred
at Baudette and Spooner, which are
practically one community, being
/ separated by a narrow river. The 9TH
| er towns consisted of only a few small
buildings.
| There were hundreds of homes de-
stroyed in the territory and as there
| the trails through the brush, it is
| feared that many lives have been lost
| that will not be reported for weeks.
The state of Minnesota is sparing
| no expense to check the fires. The
state fire warden is mastering every
man he can procure, and he is in
structed to use every possible means
at his command, regardless of cost.
Every man available is fighting the
! fires, but because of the moss which
covers the ground for depth of from
one to two feet, it seems almost i'm
possible to do anything.
If the blaze is famed by a breeze,
| all effort to check it is futile and it is
| only where it is creeping along the
| ground that any attempt is made to
| head it off. To do this it is necessary
to dig wide and deep trenches.
| Last night the fires were almost on
/ the boundary of Manitoba. Burning
over the Sprague Lumber company's
| timber limits around Sprague, Man.
| the fires are making steady, progress
toward the wooded district of south
| eastern Manitoba. From the north an
other fire is coming. to join it.
| The missing include some 1000 resi-
dents of Baudette, Spooner and Pitt
and adjacent territory, some of whom
are dead. but the most of whom are
safe in Rainey River and adjacent
towns on the Canadian side of the line.
The most serious aspect of the missing
| includes the homesteaders and farmers
| in the bush, of whom absolutely moth
ing can be learned for some time as
searching parties do not dare penetrate
the still smoking forests through which
I the cyclone of fire has swept.
Yesterday a special relief train arriv-
ed at International Falls from Bemidji,
bearing provisions destined for Rainey
River and the Bemidji company of the
Minnesota National guard, which will
take charge of the distribution of sup
plies and the preservation of order. The
burned district will be placed under
martial law.
There are three typhoid fever cases
among the refugees at International
Falls, six men badly burned, and it
seems that every family of settlers has
from two to ten children. Almost with
out exception they are absolutely des-
titute.
The women have borne up under the
terrible strain with wonderful fortitude
and all stories from the fire district are
that the women and not the men were
the heroes. Yesterday when the refu-
gees fed in panic for the freight train
| that bore them from Rainey River to
International Falls, the men crushed
down women and children, and in spite
| of the fact that the cars were choked
| so that standing room was at a prem
| ium, they insisted on cramming them
! selves in. Miss Myra Burt, a prominent
young woman of Baudette, stationed
| herself at the door of one car, kicked
! every man in the face with her point
| ed shoe who attempted to board the car
| and herself reached out and took babies
from the arms of mothers. When the
train started there we're five babies
| aboard whose mothers were left behind.
They are being cared for in the hospi-
| faI