GREAT PRAISIE FIRES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 112, 12 May 1879, Page 4

GREAT PRAISIE FIRES.

The following was telegrapbol to j tbe Post from Auckland on the arrival there of the Sen Francisco mail :— The PiGux Ci ! y jourcnl bos startling reports of the rr.vagea of destructive rrairie firps up Big Sionx Valley, and throughout Southern Dikota. The fires are describe,! ns of fearful forpp, snd ilffstructivn keypvjd precedent. The rtoies of iho .telegraph line on the Sioux .City and Gsmbina railroad were burnt, so fhst (he line bns been down. A merchant, who vpfb in Sioux CiJy, tells borrowing lr Is of loeboe in that quarter. On Saturday, from his store in towp, occupying an elevated position, j h« counted fourteen farmhouses in flames. Bra bbvs that more than forty people in that vicinity loet everything. It v?jiß a terrible blow, and comnlefeiy dnzf d the people. A Norwegian Church ,DFBr Kd-n wss burned, end & child killed. Its father was terribly scorched trying to save it, Bonse other c«6ijbl--ties $>re reported, three of which reSalted in death by the flamae. Alfogether imcienee damage was done. The hardships to the aottlers are particularly severe. The grass grew very rank bet year, and a protracted spell of dry wenlher hns made it eaey food for the flames. A terrible scene was wittered at Claremcnt when the hotel caught firp. It was a wooden building, oad old, co that the flames bad plenty of material to feed them, and but a few moments were left for eßoape. Terrorstricken men, women, and children rnehed frantically through the smoke half p.eleep, and completely bewildered by the sudden alarm aod the frightful scene which met them as they emerged frctn (heir rocma. There was no timo to epare, however, Tbe instinct of self-preservation was at work promptly to suggest means of escape. There was only one stairway, and that was narrow, and foil of smoke and flame in five minutes, so that it was useless as an avenue of escape. Windows were thrown up only to increase the flame a which were cow furiously hissing through the structure. Men and wo- ] men jumped into the yard in a nude, tr partly dresaol condition. , Others ap- { peared at the upper windows uUetine i tbe most piercing shrieks for aid in their extremity. It was an awful spectacle, The two lower floors were ' soon cleared of occupants, but the upper floors Btill contained human beings j whose chances of escape from a fiery death were decreasing rapiJly. The town had now become alarmed, and from all quarters men poured in to render what essietance they could, or <o geza on tha terrible scene which wbs being enacted. Ladders were promptly put up ageiDßt the walls for the purpose of extricating the poor people. Ope wan, wboso room was on the i upper storey crawled out through a 1 window, seize 5 - the lightning rod and coolly let himself down to the ground, cseepiog with no otfeer injury than blistered hands and bruised limbe. He wtß loudly cheered as be slowly crept down, while men aud women held their breath lest the rod should give way and throw him heavily to the ground, when his death would have been as certain &s if he had remained in the burning building. Mr Gibson, one of the proprietors of the bouse, with his wife and child escaped from the window of the second storey. The woman pluckily held the child, and clung to tbe blind, while her husband obtained a board upon which tbe mother and 3chtld slid to the window in perfect tavety. They were followed by Gibson, who proraply re-entered the building to lend what assistance he could in rescuing others. Owing to some repaira to the house, Mrs Gibson, mother of the proprietor, had been temporarily placed in a spare room, and her son rushed frantically in search of her, but was unable to reach her in time, and she perished in the flames. Anna Jobmon, a chamber-maid, whose room was oa the third floor, tried to escape from the hall by rueaos of the stsire, but found a solid wall of fire obstructing her passage. She ran back to her room, raised her window, hung out as far as she could without falling, and screamed frantically for assistance. She was aooa enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke, which was occasionally lit ap by flashes of flames as the fire worked its way upwards. Half a dozen hands Immediately seized a ladder and ran it ap againßt & wall. A man climbed up to the poor girl's aid, but he came down again blinded with smoke, and almost insensible. Another volanteer Btepped into his pia'6e, and toiled up the ladder, bat he too bad to come down without tbe unfortunate girl. Another man stepped from tbe orowd, and amid tbe cheers of the aseembiage, ran up step after step, until be was lost in the clouds of smoke which rolled out in dense masses from the doomed building. He reached tbe poor helpless girl, but could not pqll her out as she had fainted, and must have been caught by something on the inside from which he was usable to deliver her. He came back without accomplishing his mission and no one else would venture. There aha remained until the wall fell ia and she became a charred mass amid the burning ruins. About tbe same time, Mrs Chase, a pastrycook in the establishment, Lydia Mervill, a fabte girl, and Charles Morgan, a guest &t tbe house, went down with the tumbling frails, mingling their shrieks with the horrible din and crash which prevailed i within and without. j