Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-10-23
FROM THE CENTER:
OF THE FIRE ZONE
J. B. Ny1aard Write. Stirring Let
ter to The People Of Kandiyohi
County,.

te1 10 Inc IeOple Oh ASuQlyOnl
County.
To read about a fire, especially one
like we have just gone through, gives
a person creepy" sensations but to
be right up In it, gives a different
feeling altogether.
Last Saturday and Sunday, are days
wa shall never forget. The wind blew
about fifty or sixty miles an hour and
the whole surrounding country was on
fire.
The scene was SO appalling and 50
overwhelming that words fail to de-
scribe 1t, at least my vocabulary can't
begin to draw a true picture.
The fire right south of US passed
about s p. m. Saturday. I tried to get
to one of our neighbors with the car
but the fire cut mo of before I got
there, and it was just nip and tuck
that could get back as the fire was
that it was hard to breathe even SIT
ting still, not talk about running. But
managed to get back home and there
west. At one a. m. Sunday, we just
about gave up hope of saving anything.
The whole heavens seemed ablaze and
it just made us sick to stand and
| watch those Oceanlike waves Of flames
We were helpless as no human hand
could stop anything like it.
But as those rolling masses of flames
came on and was just getting close
enough to cross the river 1--WE live on
the south side of the st. Louis river)
the wind swung little more to the
west and made the flames roll on on
the north side without crossing at our
place, but crossed further down. But
we were still in grave danger till about
Sunday noon. We lost hay and timber
but saved ourselves and home. The
heat was so intense that green and dry
timber seemed to burn alike.
Our neighbors south of us did not
fare as well as we did. The enigh-
bors I intended to reach with the car
had a clearing on the fire side,
should judge about fifty rods, and still
he lost everything but the house and
he nearly lost his eye sight saving
that Some of the COWS we found
dead and some had been burned SO
the hoofs had come off and they we're
trying to walk around on the stumps.
About six miles south of us there
was 10 persons dead. One place the
whole family were dead and in an
other the wife and children, home and
| all were lost and the husband was left
| with just the clothes that he had on.
Another place, close by, the mother
with her two children were home.
The husband was away. Returning
after the fire he found them all dead.
When things got fairly safe at home
we took the car and went to Moose
Lake. We had relatives there. Went
by the way of Cloquet. The scenes
that met US were appalling. At one
place a wagon and horses laid In the
ditch, the horses had torn apart and
laid about 20 feet apart. A girl had
been driving the team and she was
dead.
CloQuet was burned as clean, that
| il it had not been for the wires lay.
| ing all over, a person would think
| that it had been cleaned up after the
| fire. The heat and wind had cleaned
everything up so the streets looked
as tho they had been swept. Arriving
at Moose Lake similar scene pre-
scented itself, not burned so clean but
more gruesome as the collins with
their contents talked, altho silent
in such way that you unaware would
be fumbling, trying to get hold io1
your handkerchief, were hauled GU,
to the graveyard by big trucks, II Il
Is cofins to the load, and the soldier!
were digging grave over one hundred
feet long. And more bodies wer'
brought in from the woods right along
At 4:30 we started for HOME
Thousands now have no such place tt
go to, and the winter may be on u
any day.
Understand the people of Kandiyoh
county have been abundantly blessed
this year.
Now show your thankfulness b,
sending some of your surplus to tn
, Duluth Red Cross fire relief fund, an
thus HELM your unfortunate neigf
bors to the north.
! Your one time neighb0r,
J. B. Nygaard.