Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1908 — HUNDREDS DEAD [ARTICLE]

HUNDREDS DEAD

Fire Stricken Region of British Columbia Wants Prompt Help. Refugees are all destitute mm Had to Fly with Nothing but ths Clothes They Wore. Estimated That the Death Roll Will Reach 400, and $10,000,000 in Property Has Been Wiped Gut: Vancouver, B. C., Aug. 4.—This city awakened to a full sense of the completeness of the destruction around Ferule. According to a competent authority the loss will exceed $10,000,000, and the death list total will never be known. It Is now believed that at least two hundred have perished. Vancouver wired $5,000 for relief and a trainload of supplies has gone out. Winnipeg has dispatched a special train with nurses, doctors, hospital stores and provisions.

Death Roll May Total 400. Loggers to the number of eighty in the camps of the Elk Lumber company have perished in the flames, ana several settlers w'th their families, who lived in the line of railroad TJetween Fernie and Michel, have disappeared. The death total will probably grow larger, and a special dispatch from Winnipeg declares that It will reach 400. When the flames were consuming Fernie nil the prisoners with the exception of five “black hand” suspects were released. loiter they were recaptured and sent to Nelson. Help Is Needed Quickly. Crowds of refugees have also arrived at Nelson, the overflow from Granbrook. These are. being cared for as much as possible, but their condition is pitiable. In their flight they brought nothing away hurt the clothes they had on. A telegram from Editor Sampson, of the Cranbrook Herald, sums up the situation there as follows: “All help needed quickly, or worse will fallow.” No list of the dead has yet been received In Vancouver.

Help/ from the Government. Ottawa. Ont., Aug. 4.—Sir Wilfrid Laurier has sent a message to Granbrook. B. C., in response to a telegram asking for federal assistance, stating that General MacDonald, quartermaster general, has befcn Instructed to place all tents and military blankets belonging to the /militia department In British Columbia at the disposal of the fire sufferers. The militia authorities in the province have been ordered to facilitate the distribution of tents, etc., and to do everything possible to assist those rendered homeless by the fire.

MICHEL PROBABLY DOOMED How the Horses at Fernie Roasted in Their Tracks. Winnipeg. Man., Aug. 4.—The situation at Michel is critical. Numerous fires started in the town which are only pnt out by heroic exertions. Fires are raging on all sides, and it only remains for high winds to arise to continue the destruction. Ropes are faint for the safety of the place, for should the fire jump across the river it will be impossible to save the town. Not aloue the new town, but the coal company’s buildings and the entire old town will be doomed. It is feared that rn«ny lives have been lost at Fernie. especially In the west end, where the flames spread so rapidly. It was almost Impossible for a man to outrun the roaring furnace, and how much chance remained for women and children. Many men were cut off in the bush and perished and their bodies are being brought in every hour by searching parties. It was terrible to see the horses in Fernie Saturday. The poor brutes stood in the street wl-th red flames all around them, scorched and scarred, their ribs burned out, their hide and flesh dropping from their bones, and standing in sublime patience without a sound—-possibly hoping or expecting their masters to come and lead them to safety. Bbt no help came and the suffering animals finally dropped where they stood and were burned to ashes. From five to seven thousand men, women and children in full flight from the flame swept regions of Crow’s Nest territory are camped In Oranbrook and the surrounding hills.

Bishop Brent Declines. Washington, Aug. 4.— I Bishop Charles Henry Brent, of the Philippine islands, has declined again to become Episcopal bishop of Washington. His decision is announced in a letter received in Washington, written by the Philippine bishop from Boston. His reasons, he are the same as those which govenied his declination of the first election—that It is God’s Trill that he remain in the Philippines. John Casale Held In Bail. Paterson, N. J., Aug. .4.—John Casale, a well-to-do real estate operator, who was arrested here on a charge bade by a twelve-year-old girl, has been held in SI,OOO bail for the action of the grand jnry. He also ■was held In SI,OOO bail on another charge made by Lillian L. Hebner, fifteen years old, for an offense said to have been committed July 1&