Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1893 — TEN MET WITH DEATH. [ARTICLE]

TEN MET WITH DEATH.

EIGHT OF THEM BURNED IN AN OLD WELL. Terrible Fate of Unfortunate Who Took Ke uje from Michigan Raging Forest Fires In a Deserted Fit, Never to Emerge Again. Flames In the Forest. A forest fire destroyed Louis Sands’ lumber camp near Lake City, Mich. Out of a total crew of sixty men fortynine escaped uninjured. One, Edward Sullivan, was seriously burned and ten are dead. Of these, eight took refuge In a well and were cremated there by the timber and curbing falling in on them and burning. Two tried to run the gauntlet and were burned to death. The men were assembled at dinner and the forest fire, which was burning all around, entirely cut off escape. When the men, realizing their danger, rushed out of tho building in which they had been sitting the smoko so blinded them that they became bewildered. They ran hither and thither, unable to find a moans of escape, and their horses stampeded owing to tho confusion. Eight of the men jumped into a well to escape the flames and there died of suffocation. Thoir bodies have since been brought to the surface. Other men rushed to the woods and some of them thus escaped, but tho bodies of two of them were afterward found burned. One man reached Lake City terribly burned and there died in fearful agony. Eight teams of horses were cremated. The bodies of the burned have been taken to I.ako City, where they await burial. Most of the unfortunates were strangers, and the bodies will be shipped to friends where known. The fire in the timber near the camp of Blodgett, Cummer & Dwiggins is under control and no further hunger is feared there. SaTlnrw’j Big: Bl*zc. A little spark and a strong southwest gale at Saginaw, Mich., resulted In a very destructive fire. In a brief period the work of years of toil was destroyed and tho fairest portion of Saginaw left a mass of smoldering ashes and debris. The flro is said, to have started from the chimney of Briggs & Cooper, on what is known as the middle ground, and, wafted by the gale, It swept down into the dismantled mill plant of Sample & Camp, on the docks of which were a number of piles of lumber. The Bristol street bridge next caught and a portion of it was destroyed. Thence the flames leaped to the east side just below Bristol street and north of tho city hall, where were located a large number of buildings, including hose-house No. 6, J. F. Winkler’s ice-houses. Eleven residences on Tilden street and on both sides of Washington avenue down to Holden street were quickly licked up. Then the sparks wero carried across the old bayou into the premises of the George F. Cross Lumber Company, the planing mill, lumber in the yard and a dozen tenement houses melting like 6now. Next came the Allington & Curtis Manufacturing Company’s extensive plant and Passot’s old soap faotory, all of which were wiped, out. Here the fire struck Jefferson avenue, and in an hour some of the finest residences in the city were in ashes. The flames made a clean sweep north to Emerson street, where the fire continued eastward, south and along Emerson street toward the city limits. It cut a wide swath on Owen, Howard, Sheridan and Warren avenues and other streets east, St. Vincent’s Orphans’ Home succumbed early, but tho inmates wero ull removed to places of safety. In many instances houses caught fire and were destroyed before the occupants were hardly aware that they were in danger, und dozens of families saved practically nothing. It is impossible to give a correct account of the losses and insurance. The former will reach nearly $1,5C0,( 00, with probably an insurance of $700,000. Fully I,uoo men employed in factories burned aro thrown out of employment and hundreds of families are homeless, as about three hundred buildings were burned. Only one life was lost, that of John Clark, employed in McClelland’s file factory, who burned in front of his own house. A fireman named McNally was quite severely burned. There will he many cases of distress, but the great majority of the losses are distributed among people comparatively well-to-do. Tho heaviest loss is that of E. Germain, which foots up to $350,000 and throws 350 men out of employment. Wisconsin Towns Destroyed. Saturday was a bad day for the towns and cities of Northern Wisconsin, which aro surrounded by the pine woods. The wind blew a gale, and vegetation is so backward that everything was as dry as tinder. The conditions were those that generally obtain late in the fall, and precautions against fire are then taken. As it was, forest fires raged all along the line of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad from Antigo to Buckbee and from Eland Junction to Waueau. The town of Bryant, near Antigo, was entirely wiped but, and the inhabitants forced to flee for their lives. Thirty buildings were destroyed and not a single house of any description was left to mark the town site. About one million feet of lumber and three hundred thousand feet of logs were also destroyed. There was little insurance. Many of the inhabitants of Bryant spent last night in tho woods. It was a day of great excitement at Antigo. Forest fires blazed all around and thero were several alarms of fire in the city. The last lire started in the afternoon and swept over the southern portion of the city, destroying Weed’s mill and about forty houses. The damage will exceed SIOO,OOO and 200 people were made homeless. Miune o n Town Burncc?. A dispatch from Rock Creek, Minn., 6ays that that town is destroyed. Among the buildings are two general stores, a depot und several residences. The loss will probably re< ch $30,000. The wind at that point blew a gale, and the town had not appliances for fighting fire. Rock Creek is a railroad town in the pine country, sixty miles north of St. Paul.