Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-10-14
1000 PERISH IN
Big FOREST FIRE
OVER TWOSTATES
Huge Paths of Flames Sweep
Over Wisconsin and Min
nesota Timberland

Duluth, Oct. IA large section
of Northeastern Minnesota-three
days ago a busy and prosperous bust
ness and farming country-to- day
was a smouldering ruins with hun
dreds of bodies of men, women and
children, many of them burned be-
yond recognition, strewn about the
countryside, as the result of the
disastrous forest fires which swept
this territory Saturday and Sun
day.
Latest estimates place the death
ilst at close to one thousand, al
though no official figures were avail
able early to-day. Hundreds of per-
sons are more or less seriously burn
ed. thousands destitute and home
less and the property loss will run
into many millions of dollars.
At least a dozen cities and towns
were destroyed. The worst blazes
were at Moose Lake, Kettle river and
Cloquet. In Moose Lake and imme-
dlate vicinity, 1t is estimated more
than three hundred, persons perish
ed in the flames. Between 900 and
4O0 collins have been ordered sent
to this town alone.
Twelve thousand homeless and
penniless refugees, all in need, more
or less, of medical attention. are
quartered in hospitals. churches,
schools, private homes and in the
armory here, while doctors and
nurses sent from surrounding COM
munities attend them, and nearly
every abfe-bodied man in the city
has been conscripted to fight the
flames which now are reported to
be dying away.
Reports that the holocaust result
ed from the working of enemy
agents were circulated here last
night. Definite confirmation was not
available but incendiaries were
driven away from a local ship yard
when the fires in Duluth and Su-
perior were burning at their height,
according to f. j. Longren, fire mar
shal, and other city and state Off
cials.
Reports reaching here by courier
told of widespread destruction, but
1t was evident that in most cases the
fury of the flames was spent. Du-
luth and Superior are in no further
danger. Virginia is safe and Brain
erd was untouched. However peat
bog fires now are said to menace
the later city. Bermidji reported
only a small loss.
Greatest loss of life and property
damage is believed to have occurred
in the Cloquet region where q num-
Der of towns have been destroyed
and all semi-rural settlements vir-
tually wiped out.
A special train of twenty coaches
brought 1900 refugees from Cloquet
and Clarleton. They confirmed re-
ports that many persons lost their
lives in those towns.
Cloquet was a town with about
$500 population. More than 4,700
persons were brought to Duluth and
Superior from there alone.
The list of dead will not be def
nitely compiled for days, perhaps
weeks. Hundreds of c-stricken
people have gathered about the nu-
merous lakes in the burned area,
and those reported missing may be
among them.
The town of Twig, on the Miller
Trunk road, was wiped out
Other towns reported as being en-
tirely destroyed include Rice Lake,
Brookston, Brevator, Corona,
Adolph, Thompson, Arnold, Moose
Lake and Wright.
There is no community within a
radius of thirty miles which has not
sustained more or less damage and
each has it's quota of dead and in
iurad