New-York tribune., 1922-10-06
100 Dead, 5000
Are Homeless In
Fires
Forests Ablaze i'm Ontario
Cause Property Losses in
Millions; s Towns Razed:
Countryside i'm Ruins
Rain Quenches Flames
Woman Loses Life Trying
to Rescue Aged Cripple;
Port Neuf Is Threatened
Special Dtspatoh to The 7r.bur.


COBALT, Ont, Oct. 5.-More than
one hundred dead, five thousand home
less and property loss high in the
millions is believed to have been the
cost of the forest fires that swept the
Cobalt region yesterday. Rain has been
falling throughout the district since
noon to-day and the fire menace is def
nitely at an end. 1t will be days, how
ever, before the victims have been
counted, for the refugees are scattered
over wide area.
less tonight. The city is in darkness
and without water supply. The prop
erty loss in Haileybury and North CO.
bait combined will exceed $1G,oo0,o0o.
The fire covered an area Of about 100
by fifty miles. The provincial govern
ment of Ontario announced tonight
that the towns Of Haileybury, Thorn
loe, Heeslip, Charlton, New Liskeard,
Breutha, Englehart and OAK had been
destroyed, and the settlements lying
between these places wiped out. The
countryside away to the north for fifty
miles is marked by ruin after ruin
where farmsteads were in the path of
the flames.
Families Are Separated
Twenty Haileybury dead have been
identified and more bodies are being
removed from the ruins by the rescue
squads, working through the night
with the aid Of torches. More than
5000 refugees have been taken by
train to North Bay, where the survi-
vors of the conflagration are being con-
centrated by the Ontario authorities.
Military officials are distributing
blankets and food among the sufferers.
There has been no organized attempt
as yet to bring families together. In
the flight from the burning district
many children became separated from
their elders.
Loss of life was heavy in the iso-
lated communities. At Thornloe six
unidentified bodies were found beside
the railroad tracks. At Heaslip, Robert
Bond, his wife and eight children, his
parents and his brother-in-law were
burned to death.
Haileybury is the trading center in
the Lake Temiskaming region. 1t had
population of 10000 and was proud
of its cathedral, schools and homes. All
buildings in the city are in ruins.
QUEBEC, Oct. 5.-Timberland in the
st. Maurice Valley is ablaze tonight,
fires spreading south and southeast to-
ward this city and the villages lying
north Of Montreal in what is described
as Canada's worst conflagration.
Public prayers for rain were. raised
near Grand Mere toward which the
fires steadily are creeping. The flames
are menacing the $5o0,00D puIpwood
tree nursery of the Laurentide Com
pany at Proulx and are licking their
way toward $4,000 cords of lumber.
Fire Rages in Two Provinces
The extent Of the area ablaze in St.
Maurice Valley has not been estimated,
the fires burning far to the north, in
regions sparsely populated. The entile
burning area spreads over the two
provinces Of Quebec and Ontario FAN
shaped, with the three cities Of Ot-
tawa, Quebec and Montreal to the
south.
OF these three Montreal is probably
the nearest to the larger fires, a smoke
day,
Port Neuf, to the north Of Montreal,
is threatened. A large fire is burning
between Riviere-a-Peu and Rosseau's
Mills and threatens to sweep through
the forest area Of Notre Danes des
Anges.
The fire in Ontario began on Tues
day afternoon. Hearing reports of
heavy forest fires in Michigan, to the
east in Quebec and over the border in
Maine, farmers working in potato
field on the outskirts of Haileybury
started rubbish fire to burn dried po-
tate, tops. Tonight, as result, only
twenty homes stand in the picturesque
lake town of Haileybury.
From the potato patch the fire spread
to bushes and then to neighboriag
woods, which were dry as tinder. Soon
the fire was beyond human control.
From Haileybury the people rushed
to the lake shore when the fire closed
in on the town. Mrs. T. A. Cobbold,
wife of the county clerk, was one of
the first to lose her life. She attempt
ed to rescue an aged uncle, Q cripple,
was overcome by smoke and burned to
death.
According to reports from Cobalt,
one of the dead is H. Elthe, former
president Of the Porcupinc Mining
Company.
Dispatches from the fire-fghting
forces In st. Maurice Valley say the
largest property damage there has
beer, to commercial structures, particu-