Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1910-10-15
FOREST FIRES RAGE
ALONG NORTH BORDER LINE
STATE OF MINNESOTA.
Number of Deaths Estimated at $50,
Mostly Settlers Around Baudette-
Fires Worst in Is Years and Still I'm
checked-Canadian Northern Trains
Do Great Rescue Work.

Warroad, Mimi, Oct. 1O.-The great
est catastrophe that Minnesota has ex
perienced in Is years took place Friday
night and Saturday, when the whole
Minnesota Manitoba boundary country
was swept by fire. The flames still rage
unchecked
The number of deaths is estimated
from 100 to 200, almost entirely among
settlers around the towns of Baudette,
Pitt, Roosevelt and Graceton. This esti
mate may be too small.
The Known Dead
John Tulley and five members of his
family, recently arrived from Fullerton,
Neb., burned to death west of SpooneI.
Four land spectators from Daven-
port, Iowa, recent arrivals at Baudette,
caught by flames while out for home
steads on south side of Baudette river
John Simmons of Red Oak, Iowa, tim
Der ranger, caught by flames on rail
road track while trying to escape to
Rainy River.
Matson Berg and five members of his
family, burned to death on outskirts of
Spooner when house was destroyed.
They were suffocated in a big stone
cellar.
John Rollin and family of eight fran
Pitt.
Severt Hagen, Charles Baker ard
Patrick Mara of Arlington, MINI.
Katherine Jasper, aged SIS, domestic
for Albert Berg, Baudette.
| John Golvin, aged As, homesteader,
four miles from Baudette, wife and
three small children, two girls and a
boy.
Katherine Jasper fought her would
be rescuers with a butcher knife and
persisted in the home of her employer.
Hundreds Are Missing.
The missing include some 1000 resi-
dents of Baudette, Spooner and Pitt,
some of whom are dead, but most of
them are safe in Rainy River and ad-
jacent towns on the Canadian side of
the line. Many homesteaders and
farmers are in the brush for a distance
of 100 miles east and 20 miles south.
Of these nothing can be learned for
some time, as searching parties dare not
penetrate the smoking forests.
Wagon loads of human bodies are be-
ing brought into the railway station at
Baudette. 1t is reported that many
fsettlers, crazed with grief at the loss
of families and property, are roaming
the woods, and searching parties are
looking for injured, the dead and the
demented.
At $3.50 in the evening a tornado Of
fire struck Baudette and Spooner, and
within three minutes after the first
alarm every building was ablaze. With
in half an hour they were heaps of
ashes. The people of these two towns
had just enough time to- get out of their
homes with what they had on their
backs. They were loaded on a passen-
ger train that was standing at the depot
and taken to Rainy River, Ont.
other Towns in Danger.
The whole country east of here is on
fire. Swift, Williams and Cedar Spur
are in great danger. All the women and
children are being rapidly removed &c
places of safety.
The Canadian Northern railroad has
stationed trains at every station and
is doing everything in its power to re
lieve the situation.
, Five Thousand Are Homeless.
The people of Baudette and Spoonel
and the settlers all through the norti
1 central part of the state have lost every
: thing. Five thousand are homeless anC
the greater part of them absolutel,
destitute.
= Canadian Northern trains have beer
= stalled here since Friday night, when
a freight train went through a bridg'
e near Pitt.
4 Stories of horror are reported from
, every point.
Winnipeg, Oct. 1.-THE latest re
ports from the fires in the Rainy Rive
region of Minnesota increase the hor
{ rors of the situation. Estimates of tn
Il number of persons killed range from
70 to 400 now. Many conservativ
men place the number of deaths a
more than 100, but the greatest concerl
E for the present is the rescue and relic
of the helpless and homeless womel
/ and children.
Stories of wild animals fleeing 70
safety side by side with human beings
of mothers burned to death with babie
a on their breasts and men cremate
st while endeavoring to shield their chi
IT dren were among the tales of horror
4 brought in.
y The Duluth Express brought man
d refugees from the scene of conafigrs
% ton.
Vancouver, B. c., Bank Robbed.