Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1910-08-26
SEARCH FOR DEAD
IN FOREST FIRES
Scores Of Bodies Have Been
Found in Ashes.
1000 FIGHTERS ARE MISSING
Flames Rage Unchecked In Five
States-Women Save ToWn-Many
Villages Still Threatened.

|
| Nearly the whole panhandle OF
Idaho, timbered mountain country, is
on fire, and it is possible that 400 per.
sons may have perished.
United States Forest Supervisor W.
| f. Weigle has not heard from 300 of
| his men who We're in the burning
| woods, and he fears they may have
| perished.
He sent Ranger A. T.. Holcomb to
open up the old Mullan road leading
to the Bullion mine, where eight bod
les are buried.
The known dead now number so.
Three towns are in ashes. They are
TAFT, Deborgia and Henderson. The
old part of st. Regis has been de-
stroyed, and half of Wallace. Idaho,
where forty-five lost their lives, lies
in ruins
a crowd was sent out to the big
fork of the Occur d'Alene, where
twelve bodies are buried under the
ruins. This will necessitate the clear
ing of thirty miles of road to Wallace.
Besides the twelve dead at Big Fork,
three men suffered broken legs and
three others We're totally blinded
Heavy clouds are hanging over the
district and rain is expected.
Six hundred fire fighters who left
Thompson Falls, in Montana, four days
ago, are reported lost and Forest Su-
pervisor Bushnell, of the Cabinet re-
serve, who is at Thompson, fears all
may have perished.
The fires have swept past Wallace
The towns of Occur d'Alene district
have passed the first stage of wild, un.
reasoning panic and have settled down
for the list of dead.
Forty men are dead north of Muir
ray, Idaho, along Independence creek,
where the fires were the fiercest.
The list is constantly growing, as
the forest rangers, with red eyes and
blackened faces, penetrate the rails
now choked with fallen logs and bring
word OF fire fighting crews cut off,
camps wiped out, ranchers and home
steaders caught in the path of the
Hames and mountain towns left in
ashes.
Hardly a bridge in the whole coun-
try around Wallace is left and the
Oregon Railroad a. Navigation, North
ern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee &
Puget Sound lines are crippled to some
extent The burned district in Mon
tana, generally speaking, extends east
to MiSsoula, north to the headwaters
of the st. Jose and in other directions,
nobody knows how far. From the top
of the hills everything as far as the
eye can see is swept bare.
1t is said that insurance on the
buildings destroyed in Wallace will
total $350,00O. Losses are still esti.
mated about sl.OOO.OOO
That Elk City, Wash, is still on the
map is due solely to the heroism of
the women of the town, who, while the
male population was fighting the ad-
vance of the conhagration, guarded
their homes and business houses, ex-
tinguishing flames wherever they ap-
peared.
The town is out of danger, but the
conditions in the surrounding regions
are growing worse. The wind has
again risen to gale and the adjacent
mountains are a 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 gi- |
gantic furnace for miles. A number of |
outlying settlements, from which the |
have fled, are certain of
destruction.
Forest Ranger Porter wires Assist |
ant Ranger Brown, at Grangeville, as
follows:
situation desperate. Whole country |
ablaze. Must have help to save prop
erty."
The fire in the Clearwater reserve, |
according to advices, is absolutely be-
yond control and all hopes of subduing
the flames until it rains have been
q ha N pdpppl