DISASTROUS FIRES IN AMERICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2708, 6 September 1894, Page 1

DISASTROUS FIRES IN AMERICA.

Washington, Sept. 2. Sis hundred lives were lost in the fires, that have devastated Minnesota; two towns are also destroyed. Damage has! been done to the extent of several millions. Passengers abandoned the trains and took refuge in a swamp, where; they were surrounded by."fire. Two. hundred of them were eventually rescued.

Sept. 3. Minnesota has been a theatre of devastation and ruin, and most horrible scenes have occurred. No less than three hundred passengers by train are missing. In one district over which the body of fire had swept one hundred and thirty corpses were found within a space of five acres. At Hinckley forty unfortunate people surrounded by the flames took refuge in a water .hole, but the fire-awept over*nts surface ; some were burned to death and others drowned. The train mentioned in yesterday’s cablegram caught fire before it reached the swamp, and in the panic that ensued twelve people leaped out into the raging fire and were killed. The counties of Kennebec and Carlton were denuded of their villages. Thousands of people are camping out without food and surrounded by charred corpses. No house or village in the path of the fires escaped. The damage is roughly put at £2,000,000. The forest fires were due to the prolonged drought, which has lasted two months. They began on Friday and the result was appalling. Sixteen towns, exclusive of villages, have been destroyed, and fifteen hundred lives lost. This shocking feature of the calamity was in large measure due to a change of wind, by which towns supposed to be, safe we*e suddenly engulfed. In many places the people kept the fire at bay for hours, till they were exhausted. Wherever the flames swept, the air was filled with the shrieks of the dying. Some stood in pools and dashed water over one another.; others wallowed in the' mud and so sought to escape their dreadful fate. Rain is now falling in Minnesota, but the fires continue in Michigan and Wisconsin. Forty square miles are devastated. Three blocks of the chief business premises in Austin, Texas, have been burned. The damage is estimated at 5,000,000d015. Many persons caught in the top storeys of buildings were unable to escape and. lost their lives.

Sept. 4. A later estimate is that 900 persons perished in the forest fires in Minnesota. The progress of the fire resembled a whirlwind, and the scene was appalling ; whole families endeavouring to escape in waggons and trains were overtaken and became victims to the devouring element. Women behaved heroically, and cheered on the men who were endeavouring to arrest the progress of the fire.