The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1921-09-03

to death, the homes of seven fam
lies were burned, and between
100000 and $4,000 worth of damage
was done when the fire which has
been smouldering on Huckleberry
mountain was famed by a terrific
wind storm Tuesday afternoon aud
evening, causing it to sweep the
mountain from Addy north to Green
wood. The homesteads burned were
the ones owned by Nels LeMay,
Theodore Mcclure, Ted Schuerman,
Joe Martins, J. H. Carlin, the M. A.
Daggy place occupied by Mat Knud-
son. Mcclure and Daggy suffered
the heaviest losses, the damages on
their places amounting to $4,000
each.
Amacher's body was found in the
woods near his place by a searching
party Tuesday. He was a bachelor
rancher and had been a homesteader
west of Addy for thirty years. His
only known relative is Peter Amach-
er, a brother living in Addy. The
deceased was 60 years old and was
highly respected by his neighbors.
The homes of several ranchers in
this vicinity were burned out.
Thursday, west of Colville, the fire
famed again by q high wind, start
ed moving north toward Greenwood
and the grain districts. There is a
possibility that the fire will be un-
der control by Saturday night. A
band Of sheep owned by Mr.. Thomp-
son was reported missing since Tues
days fire and had not been located
up to Thursday evening. Whether
they escaped into the wood or were
burned by the flames is not known.
In addition to the big fire west of
Colville there are three fires west of
Valley and Chewelah and several
east of Valley Fires in the north
ern part of the county burned over
five sections of land including 1887,
31-39-38, 6-38-38, and the school
land in 36-39-37.
"The means for fighting the fires
are Inadequate" stated John Welty,
county fire warden, Thursday "and
every man must fight to save him
self. Some. of the fires are so hot
that the men have been unable to
get close to them to do any effective
work The season from last Friday
up to the present time has been the
worst we have experienced for some
time. The only top fire, the one at
Velvet, is under control. East of
Colville eight men are in charge.
The land is being patrolled by mem
bers of the Stevens County Timber
Protective Association and has not
been damaged to any extent"
Monday the fire came down the
side of Hucklebcrry mountain at a
terrific rate and call for fire fighters
was Immediately sent to Colville and
the surrounding district. At this
time the fire was near number of
residences and the fire fighters in
order to save the buildings back fired
which temporarily held the fire in
check
Tuesday around II a. M, the
main fire was famed by another
terrific wind storm which carried
huge embers as far as forty rods
away and which started new fires
in as many as ten and twelve places.
Seeing that there was little chance
of quelling the fires, the fire fight
ers busted themselves with trying to
save. the buildings.
Shortly after noon on Tuesday, the
wind storm developed into hurri-
cane and succeeded in carrying balls
of fire through the air like so many
pieces of hail. The fire kept getting
worse until late in the evening
when it was brought under control.
Most of the damage had been done
at this time. So intense was the
heat that chickeps and rabbits were
roasted alive without single bit Of
fire touching their body
More property could have been
saved had it not been for the wind
throwing the burning embers for
such distances. 1t was on account
of the deceiving nature of the wind
that prevented the Mcclure and
Daggy homesteads from being saved.
Both Mcclure and Daggy were
away from their own places fighting
the fire not realizing that their
places were in danger. When they
discovered the seriousness Of the sit
uation, the fire had secured too
great a hold on their places to be
put under control.
Shade trees and the other green
timber burned as if they had been
saturated with kerosene. First the
heat from the fire would dry the
trees and when the fire reached the