HALF OF CANADIAN TIMBER MILL TOWN DESTROYED BY FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 7

HALF OF CANADIAN TIMBER MILL TOWN DESTROYED BY FIRE

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 7.5 p.m. OTTAWA, May 9. Fire today destroyed half of the timber-milling town of Cabano, 150 miles from Quebec, and nearly 1500 people were rendered homeless. Men, women and children tonight picked their way through smoking streets seeking emergency shelter. A big timber yard, which had been the town’s main industry, was left a smouldering mass of embers. The fire began in the sawmill and fanned by a strong wind it raced through one building after another. Some streets were completely wiped out.

Cabona is about 50 miles south of Rimouski, half of which was destroyed by fire at the week-end. Cabano has a population of 2000. The fire disrupted communications, but the radio station employees at Cabano reported that the Mayor, Mr Emilien Morin, had ordered the town to be evacuated as the fire raged unchecked.

Firemen sped from adjoining towns to help the small Cabano Brigade. One radio operator said: “ We need help—and fast. We need the army to cope with this fire —we cannot.” The Red Cross in Quebec mobilised disaster equipment for the second time in four days for a fire-stricken town. No casualties so far had been reported. Troops who had been patrolling Rimouski were being diverted to Cabano.

This afternoon 50 buildings, including three hotels, had been destroyed, and the Cabano convent was then burning. A thick pall of smoke hung over the town, obscuring the sun. The radio men said the fire began at 10 a.m. local time. It spread from a sawmill yard to the Fraser Company’s lumber yards, and then raced through the town. Every means of transportation was being used to move all persons not engaged in actual fire fighting.

Soldiers and police guarded property against looters today in Rimouski, which was ravaged by the week-end fire. A number of grocery stores and beer warehouses were looted yesterday, but the arrival of troops soon thwarted the thieves. The police and troops are guarding homes and shops and the stadium, where food, blankets, and other relief goods are being stored.

Winnipeg’s Grim Struggle Against Flooded Red River

NZPA—Copyright OTTAWA, May 9.

in the last three dykes around the sodden city, and officials warned that the weakened dykes might collapse at any time and send 12 feet of water against thousands of homes that so far have been protected. The ravenous Red River, with 200 squares miles and 14 towns of Southern Manitoba already in its grasp, forced at least 1000 more residents to leave their homes today. It engulfed part of a second Winnipeg residential suburb, and threatened a third.

Four lives were lost and at least a dozen other persons are missing in floods which raged today through the central section of North America stretching from Southern Nebraska to Lake Manitoba in Canada.

The rampaging Red River and its tributaries increased the week-long anxiety from the scores of cities and towns, including Winnipeg. With 200 square miles of Southern Manitoba under water the flood is the most catastrophic Canada has experienced. The loss of life occurred in Southeastern Nebraska, where sudden floods followed torrential rain in the l area just south of the junction of the Platte and Missouri Rivers. A six-year-old boy, Robert Henner, and his three-month-old brother, Ronald, were drowned after the parents smashed the window of a motor car which was washed off the highway near Auburn, and rescued them. The parents clung to the children for three hours in the swirling waters before reaching the railway embankment. This soon afterwards crumbled and the children were washed away in the darkness. Two men were drowned near Syra-’ cuse. Seven out of nine persons were reported missing after a bms in which, they were riding was swept away. Officials are investigating reports that another car containing five persons is missing. The Prime Minister, Mr Louis St. Laurent, declared Winnipeg a national emergency area. He ordered all possible relief, and said Government funds for rehabilitation would be forthcoming. The flood-swollen Red River and its tributaries criss-crossing greater Winnipeg with their volume, increased by an overnight five hours of rainfall, threatened today to cut the city into half a dozen unconnected sections, thus crippling flood control operations. The waters cut more serious leaks

Officials made emergency radio appeals for unlimited numfivrs of volunteers to help stem the rising waters of the river. Brigadier R. E. Morton, called in the Manitoba Government to conduct the fight against the flood, said that the risk that bridges over the river would be put out of action was alarming. The bridges were necessary to bring the army’s flood fighters.

In St. Vital, a southern suburb on the river's east bank, the situation was growing serious. Water from a huge lake formed in an area 40 miles south of Winnipeg was draining to Winnipeg through the Seine River, a Red River tributary passing through St. Vital. Brigadier Morton estimated that 2500 servicemen were now helping the civilians. The mayors of all municipalities met urgently to deal with refugees' shelter problems. Officials estimated . that more than 12,000 persons, nearly half of them Winnipeg residents, had been made homeless. About 3000 Winnipeg homes were surrounded by water. The risk to the city’s business' district was considered remote, in spite of the newly-risen flood crest, but the power installations were threatened and part of the city was already l without electricity. ' Hospitals, overcrowded by the evacuation of four institutions, announced that they were taking only emergency cases. Livestock losses have mounted tourly.