The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-08-24
DEATH. LIST GROWS
 IN BURNED REGION Fire Has Swept Past Wallace
 to Other Points WHOLE COUNTRY AFIRE Hundreds of Square Miles of Territory Are Burned Over and the Situa- tion Is Desperate for All Concerned
WHOLE COUNTRY ATTIRE

| Spokane, Wash, August 23.-The forest
 fires have swept past Wallace. The towns
 of the Occur D'Alene district have passed
 the first stage of wild, unreasoning panic
 and have settled down with more or less
 composure to wait for the list of dead.
 The list Is constantly growing as the
 forest rangers with red trimmed eyes and
 blackened faces penetrate the trails now
 choked with fallen logs and bring word
 of fire fighting crews out of the camps
 wiped, ranchers and homesteaders caught
 In the path of the flames and mountain
 towns left in the ashes.
 | Since the report of the Bullion mine
 tragedy no new deaths have been record
 ed. Forest Supervisor Weigel had heard
 from practically all of his foresters and
 expresses no alarm except for the isolated
 gangs of fire fighters cut off from com
 munication.
 | He is also worried about Ranger Me-
 vile, fighting with 0 large crew on Inde- pendence creek, from whom he has not
 heard for several days.
 That Elk City is still on the map and l
 the surrounding country which is ablaze
 for miles, is due solely to the heroism of
 the women of the town, who while the
 male population was fighting the ad-
 vance of the conflagration guarded their
 homes and the business houses, extin-
 guishing a number of incipient blazes
 started by brands carried from the burn | NF f1arr, cfo
 roofs of the buildings all Saturday night.
 The town is out of danger but the con-
 ditions in the surrounding regions are growing worse. The wind has risen again to a gale and adjacent mountains are seething mass of flames. The entire Iron mountain is again ablaze
 and the fire on Squaw creek is burning
 with renewed fury.
 | The American river district Is a gigan- tic furnace for miles. A number of out lying settlements from which the in habitants have fled are certain of de- struction, and 1t Is reported that the plant of the American Eagle mine, the largest in the district is burning. | Hundreds of square miles of territory are involved and hundreds of men are wanted to assist in getting the conflagra- ton under control. Conditions are epito-
 mixed in brief message from Forest Ranger Porter received yesterday after noon to Associate Ranger Brown at
 Granville. It says:
 "situation desperate. Whole country
 ablaze. Must have help to save prop erty."
 | The fire in the Clear Water reserve ac- cording to advices received last night by
 Major Fenn, is absolutely beyond control
 and all hope of subduing the flames until
 it rains have been abandoned. | In Wallace the people have already re- | covered from the shock of their narrow
 escape of Saturday.
 Notices have been posted that mines at Burke and along the Canyon will start tomorrow and miners are being call ed back to work. Before the week is over
 work will have been started on the re-
 construction of many buildings wiped out Saturday night. As fast as they can be assembled bridge building crews will be rushed to work. Hardly bridge in the whole country around Wdiiace IS lell anu | the Oregon Railroad and Navigation. Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound lines are crippled to some exten.
 | The burned district, generally speaking, extends east to Missoula, north of the head-waters of the St. Joe and other di- rections, nobody knows how far. From | the tops of the hills everything as far as the eve can see Is swept bare. Until the forest rangers report at headquarters here there will be no accurate report of | fire ranges.
 | Fear of contamination in the Wallace water supply has caused the water com- pany to send men to Placer creek and all | it's feeders, clearing streams of dead fish | and charred logs. It Is said that insur- ance on the buildings destroyed there Will | total 0,00o Losses are still estimated