Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-07-21
TERRIBLE CONFEDERATION
Death of Angus E. Burt and Wife
in the Porcupine Fire.

Angus +. Burt and vile perlShed IN
the shaft of the West Dome mine in the
terrible fire which swept over the
Porcupine gold mining region of
Nol thern Ontario, Canada July II.
Angus f. Burt, aged 26 years, was the
oldest son of Prof A. E. Burt of this
place, attended our public and high
! school, was three years in Middlebury
College and then studied mining
engineering for three years in the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology
During his summer vacations of 1907 and
, 1908, he worked in the Nipissing and
La Rose mines of the then newly dis
GOV cred Cobalt silver mining region.
At the close of his study in the M. l. T.
he returned to the La Rose mine, t
first in charge of surface explorations
on their University claim and became
assayer for the company on the approach
of winter. In February, 1910, he was
severely injured by the giving away of
ladder on which he was descending a
shaft in sampling work and came
to his home in Middlebury, for
what has proved to be the last time, as
soon as he could be out of the hospital.
On July IA, 1910, he married Miss Rose
Wallngford, Of a good Cobalt family,
very attractive and highly esteemed
young lady who had been his nurse in
the hospital. He became convinced
that the gold mines just opening up in
the Porcupine region $50 miles further
north, might afford opportunities for
rapid advancement in his profession; so
/ last August he went there as sampler
at the Hollinger mine and became this
year assayer for the West dome.
1t seems strange to us that this forest
fire was not put out when it began, but
in that northern region there is no re-
gard for trees as trees; fires started by
careless prospectors or by the sparks
from locomotives shoulder in fibrous
matter about the bases of the trees
until rain extinguishes them or until
they threaten some ones belongings.
In fact | counted nine such fires at
various points in the journey of
hundred miles through the wilderness
south of Cobalt and some were still
| burning when returned. On July II,
the large volume of smoke rising from
the forest southwest of Porcupine in
dicated serious fires in progress and the
various mines got their forces out to
fight them and prevent their spread
over cleared areas-for several weeks
without rain. The wind blew from
the southwest with velocity esti-
mated at sixty miles an hour and
the fires advanced through the forest
seven or eight miles an hour, wall of
fire forty feet high, shooting up to two
hundred feet. The seventy miners
working to prevent the fire from
sweeping over the cleared area of the
West Dome-an area about half that
covered by the village of Middlebury-
soon found that the flames from the
forest were scattering burning matter
far into their rear faster than they
could extinguish the resulting fires and
that it would be impossible to save all
the mine buildings; so Manager Weiss
concentrated his efforts upon saving the
blacksmith shop and the shaft tas the
most important structures for restora-
ton of the mining plant. The black
smith shop was metal covered for fire
protection against cinders at just such
time and was piped with good water
supply. Manager Weiss and his fore
men of several kinds and their families
and the more reliable miners to the
number of twenty-eight souls gathered
into this building to save it and their
lives. The pumps were started and
streams of water were played against
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