River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-08-25
DEATH TOTAL IS 100
THREE MORE TOWNS HAVE POS.
sIBLY SUFFERED COMPLETE
ANNIf1ILATION.
REMAINDER OF WALLACE Is SAFE
Number of Fatalities Among Fire
Fighters Hourly Growinq.-FIames
Somewhat SubdUed, but DAN
ger Is Still Great.

Spokane, Wash. The Pacific
Spokane, Aug. %. = The Pacific
Northwest is facing the most terrible
forest fire situation in it's history.
Over 100 persons are known to be
dead and 100 or more are missing.
The list of injured will approximate
200. Half the town of Wallace is
swept clean and there is possibility
that two or three more towns in the
district have suffered complete de-
struction. Half dozen small towns
and villages are seriously threatened,
and their inhabitants are hurrying to
places of safety by the thousands.
The situation is most acute in the
Occur d'Alene district of nothern Ida
no. Reports from other parts of the
Northwest are of less discouraging ma
ture.
Some of the fires have been con-
trolled, others are less threatening in
the absence of wind, while in some
districts the fire fighters have diverted
the course of the flames from towns
that were threatened
In eastern Oregon, between Baker
City and Lagrande are several fires
which are doing serious damage to live
timber.
There are several fires in the UNI
qua valley in southern Oregon, but
SO far they have not done any great
damage The fires in the neighbor-
hood of Grants Pass, Ore, are for the
time being under control In the
vicinity of Medford and Ashland,
Wash, the fires are less menacing
only because there is no wind. In
both of these places all the men OBJ
tainable have been drafted into serv-
i've to backfire and trench. That the
fires in southern Oregon, in many
cases, are of incendiary origin has
been a matter of general gossip in
Medford for several days.
30 Fire Fighters Persisted.
Thirty men out of a crew of At
fire fighters in charge of Forest Ran
ger Lee Hollingshead are missing and
are believed to have persisted Satur-
day night when their camp on Big
Creek, tributary of the st. Joe riv-
er, Is miles from Avery, Idaho was
swept by flames
Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound
trains through the burned district,
which are carrying refugees, are being
furnished with guards of colored sol
diers. Train No. l, of the Northern
Pacific, west bound, reached Spo-
kane after an exciting run through
the flames at the IdahO-Montana bor-
der Every car was badly scorched.
Flames are threatening Newman
lake, a summer resort 20 miles east
of Spokane Ranches are being
burned and buildings are being con-
sumed.
Liberty lake, another summer re-
sort, Is miles from Spokane, is ap-
preached by fire from two Sides Sew
eral cottages have been burned
The st. Joe and st. Marie valley,
In the heart of the richest timber
belt in the United States, is being
swept by flames, already 100 home
steaders having been burned out. Five
hundred men are fighting the blaze
and ST. Joe river steamboats, are kept
with steam up ready to take the peo-
pie to safety.
30 Now Dead In Wallace.
Wallace, Idaho. = The loss of life
IN the forest fires that swept over
Couer d'Alene Saturday and Sunday
is now reported here at 80. Forestry
officials received word that "a fire
lighters had burned to death on Big
V creek and 80 had met death on
Superior lake.
The whole country from here to
he ST. Joe river, a distance of 25
miles, has been burned over. The
oss. in Wallace is estimated at 81 ,000,-
300. One hundred buildings were de-
stroyed The hospitals are full of
wounded, a number of them being
blind
The arrival of E. D. Hale from the
ire fighting camp at the Bullion mine,
25 miles from Wallace, with news of
he catastrophe Sunday night, brings
he total list of known dead here to