A FOREST HOLOCAUST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 13 September 1911, Page 7

A FOREST HOLOCAUST.

FRIGHTFUL FlftES IN CANADA.

The terrible forest.fires which raced through Canada, a ( nd 'especially in tli£ northern districts l * t>T Ontario, last month, destroyed r.a'Onumber of towns and villages thatjJuy;! sprung up,ip tljp neighbourhood of the recent gold discbvories. Tlid actiial damage reached incredible figures. In addition to the serious,loss of life, the mining popular tioii'driven away by tlie flames formed a line nearly 300 miles .in length. As the masses of people reached the banks of the lakeH, an awful struggle took place for ar>f£w‘ boats available to carry them out)of danger. -.d i It appears ceytgip. that 500 lives were lost, and that more than, 5000 people were rendered' homeless. 'Sixteen townships were! destroyed, besides a number of camps and mines. .Tlie burned territory lies in the districts of Nipisfeing and Sudbiiry,' and includes two. limraenso forest'reserves, which were , practically swept away by tlie flames. The authorities at Ottawa were simply overwhelmed with cabled inquiries from Europe asking for information and news of the safety of relatives. It was impossible to make any . satisfactory replies to these inquiries, because the majority of the dead whose bodies had been recovered were quite unrecognisable, and in the case of others there was no means of identity. A message from North Bay says that the refugees from the Porcupine district all tell harrowing populations, driven fights for life and of corpsestrewn trails. In the mining section 27 bodies were recovered in the West Dpme and six from the shaft of the Big Dome. A survivor states that twenty-two people were swept off a raft in the lake in a raging storm. Hundreds of people stood five hours in the water, where the only breath available was close to the water’s edge, between the waves which dashed madly overhead. The scene was terrible. It seemed as if everyone must perish from suffocation. In the lake many sank beneath the water to their, death. A prospector from Ontario states that through one afternoon and night there came into Golden City by boat and foot men with faces burned to the bouej and oven their bones charred. ‘“• * ’ One walked into tlie town with-'both arms burned to the elbow, and died soon after his arrival. Another had his arm blown off when a car load of dynamite at Dome mine exploded. Hundreds arrived with their eyes almost blinded with tlie heat and smoke. A doctor and his helper worked all night bandaging the burnt men and women and amputating their arms and legs. From Big Dome mine 210 Italian labourers were sent through the woods to Golden City. Only forty arrived.