THE PRAIRIE FIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9144, 21 July 1908, Page 3

THE PRAIRIE FIRE.

A TALE OP GIRLISH HEROISM

Prairie fires in Canada have bean during ihis spring, and have caused the lews of much valuable property, and even Joss of life. Tne danger of lires spreading on the prairie under audi conditions canrue ■be greatly lessened until the coantry is much more fully devel o.jeJ. Sparks from locomotives, matches thrown away by earehss smjkers, conflagrations started oy small boys, and the tires lighted by . a.tfclers for the purpose of clearing land, together form a grave menace that will exist just so long as there .are large uncultivated areas. This spring the fires have been mostly in the . newer provinces, where there .ar'-'ipjicious areas of wild country. are sometimes responsible for terrible Hragelies. From , Battleford, Saskatchewan, comes a remarkable story of devotion and sell'-, .sacr.'fice on the part of the eighteen-, y=:ar-old daughter of a settler. The father had gone, to tight the fire >n •another part of the district, leaving at home his invalid wife, his daughter and two young children. During his absence the flames swept down on the nomtstead. After a fruitless effort to check their progress, the girl realised that if the family were to be saved they must be removed from the house. According'y she carried tirst, her five-year-old brother, and then her infant sister, to a place of safety. They were conveyed through the path of the dames at the risk of their lives, and in tne work o'f rescue the heroic girl had her clothes burned from her body. The children aafe, she made another attempt to cross the fiery bath to assist her inI valid mother to api ice ot safety. In this, however, she was too late, and while she herself wuj battling with the flames, the two yuu.iger children had wandered back into the danger zone and perished. Tne house was destroyed, and the invalid mother met her death within. The father also lost his life. Despite her terrible burns, the girl succeeded in making her escape to the home of a neighbouring settler.