River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1918-10-17
Flames Starting Near Bemidji,
Minn., Cut SWath About
Fifty Miles Wide. =
MANY VILLAGES GONE
Property Worth Millions of Dollars
Has Been Destroyed and More
Than $1,000 Persons Are
Homeless.

Duluth, Oct. 15-More than 1000
are dead 10000 destitute and esti-
mates of those made homeless run as
high as 10000, as a result of Mime
sofas greatest disaster, caused by for
est fires burning over an area of ap-
proximately 80 by 100 miles in North
eastern Minnesota, centering in Pine
and Carlton counties, according to re-
ports received here.
The property loss is expected 10 run
between $50,000,000 and $100,000,000.
Fires in most sections have burned
themselves out and the abatement of
the high winds caused the blazes to
die down, but renewal of the gale may
fan countless small fires into furious
CONGREGATIONS.
Weather reports give no promise OF
rains Quenching the blaZes.
1876 Bodies at Duluth; rs at Moose
Lake.
Officials were reluctant to estimate
the number of dead-it being almost
impossible to obtain any definite fig
ures from cities and towns, while hun
dreds of farm homes undoubtedly have
been burned and hundreds of persons
may eventually be found in these
ruins.
One hundred and ninety-six bodies
had been brought to Duluth; seventy
five bodies, few of which have been
identified are in an improvised morgue
at Moose Lake, and it is known that
more than 400 have been burned to
death in the Moose Lake-Kettle River
district alone; about ten deaths are
known to have occurred at Cloquet,
and Twig, west of Duluth on the Mil
Ter Trunk road, is reported complete
Iy wiped out and a search is being con-
Quoted for bodies.
Scores of others are known to be
dead at Brookston, Pine Lake and
other villages in Pine, Carlton and ST.
Louis counties. Burch Lake, a sum-
mer resort near Duluth, is virtually
wiped out, with heavy loss of life
reported
The fire fighters caution against re-
Taxation in fighting the fires. Addi-
tional aid and large numbers of fire
fighters from other sections of the
Northwest are needed to relieve the
exhausted and burned men fighting
the fires, which continue to smOlder in
all sections.
Forest rangers said that the danger
will not be entirely over until g heavy
rain falls throughout the entire Sec
ton. A high wind, they say, will fan
the flames into roaring, seething
furnace of fire.
CIoquet Almost Desert Waste.
Cloquet, thriving city of 5000, is
almost level. Every residence in the
city is reported burned, but fortunate
ly warning of the approaching fire
came in time 10 allow nearly every
resident Of the city to leave.
Twelve trains were made up at Carl
ton and rushed to Cloquet. The trains
were composed of Pullmans. coaches,
boXcars, coal cars, ore cars and fiat
cars. Three bodies have been found
there
Five large mills, including a tooth
pick factory, lumber mills and other
important industries still stand-a re-
hinder Of prosperous Cloquet.
Relief work, directed by Adjutant
General Ehinow and his aid, Lieuten-
ant Glenn Harrison, is we'll under way
All MeSabi, Vermilion and Guyana
iron range towns are reported safe,
though at Nashwauk some buildings
are burned and fires are reported near
Part of Proctor and West Duluth
were burned, but the losses in that
section are comparatively small
Bodies Arrive l.s Duluth.
Bodies are being brought from every
village AID hamlet stricken by the
gale-driven forest fires The charred
bodies are beyond Identification and
great crowds of eager searchers who
have relatives missing are filing in and
out Of the Undertaking establishments,
uncertain whether they have ideEti-
Ged their peoplc or not
When day broke on the Pike Lake
road, gruesome sights greeted res
cuers. Bodies were strewn along the
roadside, six in the space of half a
mile the charred remains of FIVE auto
mobiles still stood upright in the ditch,
great trees reared their blackened
Pine County Farms Destroyed.
n