Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1910 — FOREST FIRES RAGE AND MANY PERISH [ARTICLE]

FOREST FIRES RAGE AND MANY PERISH

Special Trains Are Being Used lo Carry Refugees. Many refugees who pour Into Ml» Boula, Mont., from the fire swept districts in the west, bring heart rending tales of suffering and distress. The Northern Pacific has operated four relief specials during the day and has brought nearly 1,000 people here. Ths Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul has a special made up of. every available sort of equipment, in which 500 persons were huddled. One woman, picked up along the line at midnight, gave birth to a child in a box car. The Bitter Root valley fires has also secured renewed vigor. J. M. Kennedy of the Bureau of Protection, received information that the town or Libby was surrounded by fires and that the situation was critical. Eureka is also reported surrounded while the fires at Ann have broken out afresh. In Helena, both the Southern skies as well as those to the nortn and east are aglow, indicating that the flames are creeping up the Rbcky mountains from the west. A few blocks is the limit one may see, so dense is the smoke in Helena. ° All wires between Helena and Spokane on both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroad are down. An unverified report has reached here that the Oriental Limited train on the Great Northern has been ditched between two fires, while is it also reported that a fresh fire has broken out In Ten Mile valley, about fifteen miles south of Helena. Smoke which settled over the city was so dense that it was dark with a cr’mson glow showing through the smoke in the west. Fire, ashes and wood cinders are falling all over the city. From the Blackfoot region comes a rumor of disaster by fires. A prosperous ranch is said to be in imminent danger and a number of ranches have been burned by fires, w’hich communicated from the blazing trees. The telephone officials have rumors of 150 fire fighters being burned to death in Clearwater. The Milwaukee officials report five bridges burned on the east side of the Bitter Root river. Bates Rogers’ construction camp, near the summit of the divide, has been destroyed by fire with a loss of life, but the number of fatalities cannot be learned at this hour. Further down the mountains the charred remains of men were found near the tracks. The Milwaukee railroad depots at Anderson and Deborgia were burned and during last evening the station at Huagan was also destroyed. The fire is reported sweeping along the northern Mullan Gulch, towards the old town of St. Regis and officials on the Soo declare that the town wi” be destroyed. Another fire is reported on the lower Blackfoot, about six miles north of Bonner, which is six miles west of Missoula.. Half of the town of Wallace lies In smoking ruins and heavy clouds of smoke hang about the country through which the light of the fires shows copper red. Two lives were lost during the destruction of the town of 6,000 population, one of the wealthiest for its size in the country. Trains run by the Milwaukee and the Northern Pacific removed hundreds of homeless from the town. It is difficult to get In communication with the stricken city. The property loss is placed at a million dollars. The town of Taft, on the Idaho line, and St Regis, in Missoula county, were also burned. So far as known, there was no loss of life in either of these places or Syvanite. The towns were Completely wiped out