Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1918-10-23
1000 PERSONS DIE
IN MINNESOTA
FOREST FIRES
Many Charred Bodies Found
Strewn Along Highways
and in Buildings.
FEAR WIND MAY FAN FLAMES
Rescue Workers, Under the Direction
OF Governor Burnquist, and Other
State Officials, Find Ruined
Towns and Blackened
Countryside.

Duluth, Mimi, Oct. 15.-With an es-
timated death toll of 1000 and $4,000
driven from their homes by forest fires
| within the last two days, new con-
| fiagration was reported in the region
Of Schultz Lake. summer resort 70
miles northeastern here.
Governor and Mrs. Burnquist are
here. State officials are directing the
rescue work. No persons except those
on business are permitted to enter the
| fire-swept area, and rail facilities to
the safety zone are taxed, so great has
been the exodus OF re Igees.
Three counties have been devastat-
ed. The towns Of Cloquet, Brookston.
Brevator, Corona, Adolph, Arnold,
Thompson, Moose Lake, Kettle River,
Twig, Rice Lake and Wright have
been wiped out
800 Die in One Town.
In Moose Lake and vicinity alone
more than 800 persons We're burned or
suffocated. Between 800 and 400 eof-
fHs have been sent to Moose Lake.
Seventy-five bodies were found in one
building, and at least 100 more were
scattered here and there. Moose Lake
was a furnace, and only those escaped
who, at the risk of drowning, waded
into the lake, where the gale-driven
waves swept over them.
Rescuers say that only the devas-
tation of war is comparable to the
ruin spread through the Moose Lake
area. Not a building stands in the
business region of Moose Lake. Here
and there broken walls remain to
trace the fearful story of the last 80
hours.
Women are searching the streets of
that town looking in vain for their
husbands or their children. In the
ruins of one building alone 20 bodies
we're found, the majority of which
cannot be identified.
Compel Women to Flee.
Reports tell of women who jumped
into the lake and all night through
refused to come to shore. Home
guards ordered to transport them out
of the zone of the fire which was
shooting toward them, finally resort
ed TO the lasso. Catching the refu-
gees, who stood in water up to their
neck, they pulled them ashore and
hustled them on the relief trains after
administering to them as best they
could.
Piles of debris are still smoldering
and additional bodies are believed TO
be beneath.
The loss in timber and property will
run far into the millions and will sur
pass that caused by any of the his
toric fires of previous years which
have swept this region Around Du-
luth alone the loss reaches $1,000000.
Working steadily throughout the
night, rescue parties hsve brought
scores of additional bodies to the
morgues here, while relief trains have
sped to the larger cities with loads
of injured and destitute. Though the
| wind has abated somewhat, fires are
still smoldering over the stricken dis
trict. and in some places are eating
ahead rapidly.
Fear Rise in Wind.
Should the wind rise again, Mime
sofa stands fair to see many thousand
additional acres swept by the flames,
and the death list possibly increased
materially. Weather predictions give
little hope of rain, which is the only
certain relief from the menace of new
conhagrations.
Scores are known to be dead at
Brookston, Pine Lake and other vii
lyages in Pine, Carlton and st. Louis
counties. Burch Lake, a summer re-
sort near Duluth, is virtually wiped
out, with heavy loss of lives re-
ported.