The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-14
Homes of 10000 People Laid Waste by Ravages of
 the Fire
KNOWN DEAD NOW
 REACH TOTAL OF 122
Bread and Provisions Are Rushed to Succor Refugees - Michigan and New England Situa-
 tions. Improved

Toronto. Ont, July i3.-Reports tonight from northern Ontario points are to the effect that the forest fires which for several days have swept over section of country extendine 300 miles northward from North Bay and covering a wide strip east and west either have been extinguished or are under control.
 No further extensive damage or loss of life is expected.
 The towns of Cochrane, South Porcu- pine and Pottsville have been obliterated. The fire swept clean the townships of Langmur, Eldorado, Shaw, Deloro. og- den. McArthur and Cripple Creek dis tricts. The known dead total 122, the majority of whom lost their lives at South Porcupine There are believed to have been many other fatalities and est- mates based upon unverified reports that run as high as 400.
 A relief train left North Bay this aft ernoon with supplies. Plenty of funds have been subscribed in this city for immediate help.
 Refugees from the burned area say that it covers 10000 square miles. com prising a district that once housed 20,- 000 people. From every quarter have come fugtives who have escaped the flames, many of them badly burned in their flight.
 It is evident that it will be some days and perhaps weeks before any accurate idea of the total number of dead is available. Many of the terror-stricken fled into the interior. Others who pos sjblv survived the fire believed to 1o, to1 px going forward cannot possibly be taken to the sufferers across the charred acres.
 Searching parties have a. difficult task before them. Hundreds from the coun- try side have volunteered in the search, but there is no semblance of relief or ganizaton as yet.
 Among the 122 known victims to have perished in the neighborhood of Porcupine is Jules Metayer, 30 years / olf. the Trench consul Twenty seven ( ftl eigners lost their lives in the West Dome shaft and 30 others were killed in another of the Dome shafts There are believed to have been many other fatalities among the foreign laborers
 Practically all the bodies recovered have been identified. Among the names in the deatk list at Porcupine are the following Americans: Charles E. Ad- ans, Phoenixville, Pa; Melvin Strain and Nathan Haas, Spokane Wash; Henry Jackson, Dome mines, Amer ican; Robert Weiss, wife and children, Butte Mont; William King. West Dome Elk City, Idaho Mir. Cartwright and son, of Ridgeway, Pa, part owner of the Pearl Lake mine; H. A. Sher man, mechanical engineer, Boston, Mass. Seventeen refugees who reached Toronto today told graphic stories of sceies in the earlier stages of the fire at South Porcupine and Pottsville,
 At the south end of Porcupine town ship, where the conflasration started the wind has obiterated with ashes mine sites,. roads and trails. Burned shreds of xlothing and hand baggage scattered along outward trails indi- cate the desperation of those who left everything behind in their efforts to reach safety. More than 100 probably perished in this section. The number drowned in Porcupine Lake is about 70. Some bodies were found in shal- low water, showing that exhaustion had overcome the victims as they reached the cooling water. The first train load of dead and injured reached Cobalt today. Some of the dead had been picked up along the way. Re- ports state that 20 perished on the trail to Mattagaml and five near Red Stone river
 The Mail and Empires special corres- pondent at Porcupine wires tonight fro,l Cobalt as follows:
 'The horrors of Porcupines great dis aster, which is without doubt even worse than the San Francisco earthquake, when the comparative sizes of the places are considered, increase hourly.
 "The cry for bread is now heard. Hunger is the one thing that those not otherwise injured have to fight against, and bread and provisions are being rushed in as fast possible. With the excep- ton of what left in the few stores of Golden City there remained nothing to eat +.
 At the beginning it was believed that the greatest loss of life occurred at the mines and in the bush, where many pros pectors must have perished. but now the towns may reveal the greatest number of dead, and 800 as total is a conservative number of those who lost tEeir lives. As far as is known there was no loss of life in Pottsville and at first it was thought that South Porcupines loss numbered but four, but since then five bodies have been found in the rear of where the empire theatre stood.
 '.Porcupine Lake has given up fl vic tims drowned or suffocated while stand ing in the water. Most of these are yet unknown. Along the Shaw-Deloro line on the trail lie eight bodies of unknown dead, and on the south side of Porcupine lake are three more to add to the six on the trail between Dome mine and South Porcupine. ,is
 -"Nothing can be added to the stories of the loss at the mines beyond the fact that Capt. Jack Hamilton. who was at first counted among the dead at West Dome, is alive. So Is Joseph Tracey, accountant for F. A. Heinze.'
 Like Wierd Imagining
 Porcupine, Ont, July l3-One of the most vivid stories of survivor of the confiagration which swept away the Philadelphia mine settlement was that of E. P. Ashmore. manager of the minc who lies terribly burned in an impromptu hospital
 Dante, in the most weird moment, while composing his Inferno" said MT. Ashmore. never imagined anything so horrible as the scene around the Phila- delphia mine. The wind drove the con- \ fagration towards us in hurricane sheets kof flame. Most of our men began to run through the woods, but darted for the pond with c. E.. Adams. It was ter 4 rible race amidst flames. Adams heart gave out and then had to carry him. In the pond we were safe but had to keep Adams on my shoulder. Soon he died For over half an hour I had to stand