Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-11-07
HOMES DESTROYED
|NBURNEDA AREA
OF FOREST FIRES
South Jersey Villages Suffer,
but Danger Is Reported
Past.
Special to the Evening star.

has charge of the fire wardens
throughout the State. Mr.. Kummel
said today that reports from the fire
districts were to the effect that prac-
tically all of them had been checked
and that many had been entirely ex-
tinguished.
State Forester Alfred n. Gaski1l is
unable at this time to estimate the
damage done to the forests of the
State in North and South Jersey as
the result of the forest fires. 1t is
also impossible at this time to tell
approximately the amount of area
covered by the flames. Reports to
the State forestry department have
been made by the agents of the
State forest fires.
State Fire Warden Charles P. Will
bur, of this city, who has been In
charge of the northern forests has
made a report to State Forester Gas
kill. The substance OF the report was
made public by Mr.. Gaskill in this
statement today:
1.-THE State fire warden has reported
from the Delaware Water Gap that
the fires on the Kittatinny Mountain
are now well under control; that the
published reports respecting them
have been greatly exaggerated; that
at no time was Blairstown or any
other settlement in danger; that there
has been no loss of life; that the
property loss other than that of burn
ing woodland Is not great; that the
area over which the fires passed,
though considerable, is not so great
as has been reportd. Definite figures
cannot be obtained for several days.
With the assistance of the railroads
there was no deficiency of help,
! though the total number of employed
was not much over 200.
Reports by the State division fire
wardens in South Jersey Indicate
that the fires there are also under
control, though many are still burn
ing.
| "As with the statements relative to
! the North Jersey fires, those pub
lished about the South Jersey fires
are in most cases greatly exaggerated.
The situation in all parts of the State
| is still serious and will remain so
until rain falls. Under present drought
conditions any of the fires that are
still smoldering may be reawakened
, by high wind, though all that ap-
pear to be dangerous are closely
watched by men under the direction
, OF fire wardens"
| The State forester urges the people
| to believe that serious as the situa-
/ ton is, it Is by no means beyond the
control Of the State forest fire service.
He refers to the fact that up to the
! opening of the deer hunting season
| the service succeeded In keeping all
fires under control, though an I'M
usual number were started as re-
suit of the dry weather. Within
/ tWenty-four hours after the close OF
! the deer season the fires were again
under control. During the four days
} that the deer hunters were In the
/ woods It was physically impossible
/ to get men to the fires that were
started in remote places before they
| assumed serious proportions. II would
department to prevent heavy fire
Hoses while 9 band OF incendiaries
was setting new fires in every direc-
! ton.
! Twelve house in Old Washington
were destroyed when the forest flames
swept past that village. The resi-
dents fought the fire day and night
since Monday and only quit when the
! flames drove them back and away
I from their homes.
! Then the villages of Quaker Ridge,
! Ha-risville and Jenkins were men
aced by the flames and the people
/ driven away. In each OF them sew
eral houses were destroyed
! Battalicns of fire fighters, which
| counted men every twenty feet,
| checked the blaze near New Gretna,
| twenty miles north of Atlantic City,
| last night, according to reports to the
| State forester.
An area of nearly Ave thousand
acres has been burned in the vicinity
of Hammonton, and much valuable
! pine and cedar timber has been de-
| stroyed. Several large. cranberry
/ a a off
| to flood them having proved futile be-
cause of the lowness of the streams.
| Owing to the wide area over which
| the fires have swept, no estimate of
| the loss is available, but State Off
Gals say 1t will run into the hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
| Seven forest fires were reported in
| the Cumberland valley of Pennsyl-
| Vania today. Constables from many
| of the towns in Cumberland county
were out with large forces fighting
| them and today all had been checked.
| A large quantity of valuable timber
| has been destroyed and in several in
stances the flames seriously threat
ened the hotels and parks on the
| North and South mountains. Fires
| were also reported from York, Frank
! lin and Perry counties, but none was
| of alarming proportions.
| Mr.. Gaskill received word from
! the warden of Washington Town
| ship, in the southern part of Bur-
| lington county, that bad forest fire
| ragged there yesterday, extending as
| far as the Mullica river, burning
| over hundreds of acres of woedland
| Word also came that Bulltown, a
/ settlement consisting of about dozen
! houses, located near Greenbank, N
| Burlington County, had been entirely
! destroyed by the forest fires, as were
| also three or four houses of farmers
near the settlement, in line with the
| fire.
! The information is that all the per-
sons in these houses had to pick up
! what belongings they could, when
! the fires approached, and then flee
| for their lives The wind was fan
ming the flames and driving them
! along at a rapid rate and the refu-
! gees had to take an opposite
direction and seek shelter at the
/ homes of farmers whose property
was not in the zone of the fires Mr..
| Gaskill directed that the refugees De
| taken care of and that fire lighters
be sent to that vicinity.
Mr.. Kummel was in comnlunica-
ton with District Superintendent
| Abbott, of Hammonton, last night,
I dhu iS1i ASu liiNt INi6o part VI lilt
| Wharton tract, in Burlington coun-
| ty, had been destroyed. This is
part of tract that the State Water
Board was about to purchase for a
water supply for the State.
TOMS RIVER, Nov. 7.-Another
forest fire started yesterday at West
field, on the Ocean county border. but
wardens In that vicinity have 1t sur
rounded and are back firing in an
effort to check it's spread.
Two big forest fires were raging
all day, one east and the other north