The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-08-23
HEAVY FALL OF RAIN
THE ONLY SALVATION
Settlers in St. Joe Country in
Northern Idaho, in Critical
Position Hospitals Filled
With Refugees and Injured.
HORRORS OF THE SITUATION

CPOkANE, Wash, Aug. with
- over fifty persons known 10 be
- dead, with 100 more missin =
and list of Injured that Will approx
innate 2OOi with half the town of Wal
lace swept clean, and the possibility
that two or three more towns ia the
district have suffered complete de
EtruetiOni with half dozen or more
small towns and villages seriously
threatened, and the inhabitants by the
thousands hurrying 30 places of safety,
the Pacific northwest faces the most
terrible forest fire situation In its his
tory. The situation l. most acute in
the Occur d'Alene district of northern
Idaho.
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 Ow-
ing TO an absence OF wind, while in
some districts the fire fighters have
diverted the course Of the flames from
the towns that were threatened. The
new fires that have sprung up during
The past twenty -four hours have not so
lar proved serious.
A report received early today that
the Colyille fire in eastern Washington
had broken out again with renewed
energy does not seem to be borne out
by the facts. This fire and the one in
the WalIowa reserve in Oregon appear.
Tor the time al least, TO be under con-
troll. fire which has been burning in
the Wenaha reserve In southeastern
Washington for the past TWO weeks
became ugly yesterday afternoon, and
advices today indicate that il is still
raging with undiminished VigOr.
Rain the Only Hope.
In eastern Oregon, between Baker
City and La Grande, there are several
fires which are doing serious damage
TO live timber. II is feared that these
fires viii not be controlled until there
is a rainfall.
There are several fires in the Umpqua
valley, in southern oregon, but so far
they have not done any great damage.
The fires in the neighbOrhOOd OF
Grants Pass ore, which became decid-
eddy threatening sunday evening. are
for the time being under control.
The situation in the Crater Lake re-
serve and the Mount Mclaughlin dis
tricts on the extreme southern edge OF
Oregon, appears To be unchanged from
the past few days, with the exception
that, owing TO an absence of wind to-
daV. these fires are not making SO rapid
progress as on previous days. They are
an burning furiOusly. however, despite
the efforts of $50 fire fighters, among
whom are 25O more regular soldiers
from American Lake, Wash, who ar
rived this afternoon.
In the vicinity of Medford and Ash
land Oregon. the fires are less men
acing only because there is no wind. In
both these places an the men obtain
allie have been drafted into service TO
hack fire and trench.
Work of Firebugs.
The fires in southern Oregon, in
many cases, are of incendiary origin.
This has been a matter Of general gQs-
sip in MedfOrd for several days. but il
became officially published today,
through the Associated Press dis
patches from Washington stating that
the associate forester at Portland had
notified the forest service in Washing
ton that the Crater reserve and Med
ford fires are known to have been of
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