Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-07-26
DESTRUCTIVE FIRES
Flames Lick up Villages and Cause
People to Flee for Their Lives.

Counties in Central Wisconsin ap-
pear to be suffering worse from forest
fires at present than those further
north. The northern section was
deluged with rain some time ago,
while the central portion of the state
was visited with only light showers.
For week past fires have been par
ticularly bad in Lincoln and Marathon
counties. That territory contiguous
to the Gleason branch of the st. Paul
railroad suffered the worst. The
town of Heinemann was completely
wiped out and the villages of Gleason,
Bloomyille, Dudley, Doering and AL
gonac were seriously threatened
Thursday morning all that remained
of the village of Heinemann was a
school house and two residences, the
fire having licked up everything on
the afternoon of Wednesday. The
town contained about twenty-five
residences, large store, club house,
boarding house, a hall, planning mill
and about s,0O0,000 feet of lumber
The S. Heinemann Lumber companys
saw mill was burned last spring
Fires have been raging in the woods
for several days, but still it was
thought that the village was not in
immediate danger, until the wind
shifted and drove the flames onto the
town. Three different fires met, and
set fire to the lumber yards. The
village was then doomed and people
began to flee. A train was standing
on the track and the people carrying
few articles of value boarded this
and were carried to Merrill. The
cries of the women and children as
they left their homes is said to have
been pitiable
The heat from the burning lumber
piles was so intense that one could
not live within half a nile of the
fire. Flames leaped high in the air,
dense clouds of smoke arose and the
scene was one which would make
strong men quail. Tor miles around
the village the desolation is complete.
Where few days ago stood growth
of timber there is now nothing but
few blackened stumps. Green trees,
1t is said, burned up as if they were
so much pitch. Nearly every farmer
in that section was burned out and
lost everything he had.
One man attempted to haul his
furniture away with one horse rig.
The horse turned around and tipped
over the rig, spilling the furniture,
and made a dash for the fire. No
sooner had the furniture struck
the ground than it caught fire.
The people of Heinemann who did
not get out of the village by train,
and all of the settlers for miles around,
gathered in Gleason Wednesday night.
Lumber wagons were fixed up for
sleeping places in the streets, but not
much sleep was enjoyed that night.
Two men were driving along road
when sheets of flames shot across the
road. They covered their heads with
their coats and saved themselves, but
their horse was burned from head to
tail. His main and tail were burned
off.
On Thursday morning wind drove
a fire toward Gleason and summons
was sent to Merrill for livery rigs to
take people out of the village.
The destruction of Heinemann is
the most serious thing of its kind
which has ever occurred in Lincoln
county. The lumber company will in
all probability build mill somewhere
else-perhaps in Merrill. The fire
will work great hardship the coming
winter on the farmers who have
burned out. Most of them were very
poor, financially, and have large fam
lilies to support. The failure of their
crops was bad enough, but their inn
poyerishment has been made more
complete by the Tres.
Nearly every morning and evening
last week this city has been covered
with cloud of smoke. At times it
was so dense as to obscure the sun
and lead one to believe that the sky
was cloudy and threatening rain.
Most of the smoke came from near by
fires. Another large fire broke out on