The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-28
DEATH LIST NOT
YET COMPLETED
Stories That Come From Great
Fire-Swept Region We're
Not Exaggerated.
IMPOSSIBLE TO ASCERTAIN
JUST HOW MANY DIED
Hundreds of Fighters We're
Laborers, Whose Timekeep-
ers Also Perished.
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
SPOKANE, Wash, Aug. 27.-Per-
sons who returned today from the
burned country say that there has been
no exaggeration in the newspaper re-
ports of loss of life or destruction OF
property in the Montana and Idaho
forest fires, The forest service is un-
able to check up its men and to say
positively how many are missing.
On Saturday afternoon, August 20,
there were $50 forestry men in the
field. There was record or their
names when they were engaged, but
some of the timekeepers have been
burned to death and with them the
lists Of employees. Wages are due the
men. and if they don t call for them
il will be assumed that the men are
dead.
Many Laborers Lost.
Forestry officers who don t wish 10
be quoted directly say they don t know
how many men have oeen lost; that
when the rangers go ont to cut trails
and survey the losses IF timber they
will find many skeletons. The lost men
Were nearly all laborers picked up by
the employment agencies of Spokane
and Missoula. None of the graduates
of the Yale forestry school were killed
or injured.
The eight men killed in the Bullion
mine and the thirteen killed on the Big
Fork OF the Occur Alenc were forest
service employees, though not included
in the lists Of the district officers at
Mlssoula.
While Supervisor Welg.e at Wallace
was gathering information concerning
his missing rangers. he received reports
of Others than forest men killed and
the list of these totaled more than
100.
These reports were unofficial and un-
verified, but they agree with tales
brought to Spokane by refugees.
Many Victims Cremated.
1t was reported to Wallace that a
number of japanese employees of the
Milwaukee railroad were killed, and
that numerous settlers, loggers and min
ers perished. When the mining and log.
they will find many employees missing,
it is believed. The land Office is in
touch with the settlers and will be able
to give a list of those who have van
ished.
The dead bodies where fire has swept
directly over them seem to be turned
to charcoal. Fingers, ears and even
arms drop off when the bodies are
touched and it is best to bury them
where found The men suffocated in
tunnels are recognizable and some of
those roasted in creek beds are not car
bombed.
An entirely new government survey
Of the Occur d'Alene country must be
made. The old boundaries were fixed
by landmark trees that have been re-
moved, and the settlers have no way
of exactly locating their land.
Injured Dishgured-
Of the fifty injured men in Wallace
hospitals all will bear scars or other
marks to the grave. Those who in
haled smoke are suffering from lung
trouble. Half the patients sustained
broken legs or arms: Many have pitt.
fully Scared faces. The number Of in
jured in the whole fire country runs
into hundreds, and while all are said
to be recovering from their injuries, in
st. Joe Threatened.
Idaho militia were sent from their
camps at Occur d'Alene today to st.
Joe to fight the forest fires, which
threaten to destroy the town. The rail.
road has one hundred men engaged and
the Occur d'Alene Timber Protective
association also has force. The timber
comes close to the town which is in
grave peril. The government has not
given any attention as yet to the fires
IN the st. Joe valley.
On the Boville branch of the Milwau-
kee railroad 200 men are fighting very
large fire that is moving north. There
is no wind and the men are able to
hold the fire In check. A body of fine
timber is threatened.
The fires on Marble creek, south of
st. Joe, are also burning. Food
has to be packed forty miles to the fire