Wallace, Idaho Forest Fire

August 22, 1910

FIRES SWEEP ON

FORESTS IN MONTANA AND IDAHO BEING LAID WASTE.

MANY LIVES REPORTED LOST

WALLACE PARTLY BURNED, WITH TWENTY-FOUR DEAD.

PROPERTY LOSS OF MILLION

SCORES OF FIRE FIGHTERS DECLARED TO BE VICTIMS.

District a Hundred Miles Square in Burning Area and Fatalities in the Section May Be Large.

Known dead near Wallace ........ 24
Injured in same locality ....... 25
Property loss at Wallace $1,000,000
Rumored dead in fire zone ...... 20

WALLACE, Idaho, Aug. 21.-Day-light this morning showed that imminent danger of this city's destruction has passed, but it brought also confirmation of losses which were only rumored and suspected last night. At least two died in the city fire, JOHN J. BOYD, a pioneer of the Couer d'Alenes and formerly agent for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation company, and an unidentified man or woman, who was incinerated in the Michigan hotel. Only the skull of the latter was found in the ruins this morning.

Of the fire-fighting forces an accurate toll of the dead and wounded is quite unavailable, but the known dead number twenty-four, the total injured twenty-five, in addition to ten blinded by smoke.

Saved Town From Destruction.

The steady work by the fire department, members of Twenty-fifth infantry, colored volunteers and the forestry forces alone saved Wallace from total destruction. The conflagration in the east was started shortly after 11 o'clock, and back firing in adjoining hills to the west and south prevented new fires in those directions.

It is estimated that the loss in the city is about $1,000,000. The entire eastern section from Seventh street to Canton street is destroyed, with three terraces of residences on the hillside. The principal buildings burned and the estimated losses follow:

Couer d'Alene Hardware company warehouse. $150,000
---set brewery, $80,000.
Pacific hotel and annex. $60,000.
Couer d'Alene iron works, $80,000.
Oregon Railway & Navigation depot, $60,000.
Times Printing company, $25,000
Worstell Furniture company, $50,000.

About 150 residences are destroyed, and many other smaller business places. Providence hospital and the Federal Land company's big mills are the the only buildings saved in the east end.

Loss of Timber Stupendous

The forest supervisor reports that the entire country between Wallace and the St. John river is swept clean and that the loss of timber is stupendous. Fires between Burke and Mullan threaten both towns tonight, and many women and children are being sent away.

With daylight a relief expedition will be organized to go to Placer and Big creeks, where the fire-fighters' camps are located. These men have been scattered ovr [sic] the country, driven hither and thither by the flames. At War Eagle tunnel, three miles from Wallace, six dead were found and two were badly burned. Five of the dead in the tunnel had sought refuge. They lay with their faces down on the water, covered with blankets and had died partly from flames and partly from suffication.

The injured were relieved by temporary dressings and were brought to the hospitals.

Twelve Dead Recovered.

At Big creek twelve dead were recovered, two injured and three unfortunates who were completely blinded. One fighter was found dead near Mullan and sixteeen (sic) who were more or less seriously burned. At Pine creek three are dead, five blinded and five others injured.

It is impossible to learn the names of the dead, most of whom came in from Spokane and other points at the call of the forestry service. The bodies are being buried wherever they are found. Days and weeks may elapse before anything like a complete estimate of the fatalities is available.

Fires are still burning around the city, but most of the hillsides facing the town are now burned off, and unless the wind rises the town is believed to be comparatively safe.

Two or three hundred people are left homeless in Wallace, many having lost their belongings. A thick pall of smoke still hangs over the city and a watch is being kept at points of danger.

The water supply is good. The lighting plant, disabled last night, has resumed operations.

(Wallace is a town of 3,750 population, the county seat of Shoshone county, Idaho, and is located at the base of the Bitter Root mountains, in the northeastern part of the state, on the lines of the Northern Pacific railroad and Oregon Railway and Navigation company.)

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 22 Aug 1910

Wide District Devastated.

MISSOULA, Mont., Aug. 21.-Mercilessly and relentlessly the forest fires in western Montana and Idaho are sweeping over a vast area, driving hundreds of fugitives before them, destroying small settlements and wiping out of existence millions of dollars worth of property.

The situation tonight is more serious than it was in the early morning, except as to Wallace, Idaho, where it is believed that nearly half of the city will be saved. Communication with Wallace, to the west has been possible at intervals today, but eastward it is entirely cut off. It is known that the entire east half of the town above Seventh street has been burned.

West of that a hard fight is being made, and with an improvement in the water supply there is more change that the flames may be driven back.

Says Thirteen are Dead

For a few minutes this afternoon the Daily Missoulan's reporter at Wallace, had a wire. He summarized the situation as follows:

"Thirteen lives lost; property loss one million; fire still threatening."

Relief Train Organized

The forestry service has organized a relief train well equipped with pack animals, carrying provisions and hospital supplies, and will endeavor to get through the fire.

About a thousand refugees have been brought into Missoula today. There is much distress among them Their wants are being supplied by Missoula people and they have been given temporary homes. The first of the trains came in over the Northern Pacific's Couer d'Alene branch and brought the patients who had been in the Sisters' hospital at Wallace and as many refugees as could find places on the small train.

There were 250 on this train and a second train at noon brought as many more. These people came from the small towns along the line between here and Wallace. Many of them had been roused from their sleep by the people on the train, whose summons had been the first intimation that the fire was near; there had been no sign of it when the people went to bed Saturday night. In most instances these people escaped only scantily clad. A woman who had fled from her home at midnight gave birth to a child in a box car just after the arrival of the first train at Missoula.

Caring for the Refugees.

Local hospitals are caring for the sick. Missoula homes have been opened freely and the homeless are comfortable for the present.

Another train with 500 people on board, is expected over the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railway.

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 22 Aug 1910

Some of the Dead.

SPOKANE, Wash., Aug. 22-Twenty-three persons are known to have perished and between seventy-five and 100 are missing in the forest fires raging in the Panhandle of Idaho, in the Couer d'Alene district.

The dead:

K. G. BOYD of Wallace, suffocated by smoke.

MRS CHARLES SMITH and a one-year old baby, drowned in a well into which they jumped to avoid flames.

MISS AMELIA WARD, stenographer, suffocated by smoke.

TWELVE UNIDENTIFIED fire fighters from a crew of Ranger Bell, burned or suffocated.

SIX UNIDENTIFIED fire fighters from a crew of Ranger EDWARD PULASK.

ONE UNIDENTIFIED fighter from the crew of Ranger DANIELSON.

The seriously injured, mostly fire fighters, will number, according to the statement of W. R. Weigle, forester superintendent of the Couer d'Alenes more than one hundred. Many of them have been stricken blind and others have broken limbs.

Other Probable Losses.

Other probable losses of life also are reported. Three families of homesteaders, comprising fifteen persons are said to have perished in La Tour creek, near Catoldo, Idaho, in the forest fires. They are JOHN ANDREASE, wife and five children; B. A. SMITH, wife and two children, and JAMES OSBORNE, wife and family.

Never in the history of Idaho has the baptism of August fire reached such widespread proportions, or created such universal damage.

The flames have consumed virgin forests, homesteads, mine buildings and human lives.

The stampede for safety has strained the facilities of the railroads and the passenger trains are made up of day coaches and box cars.

People from sick beds, cripples and other unfortunates are loaded on the trains to be taken to Parson, Couer d'Alene and Spokane.

Thirty men out of a crew of forty-seven fire-fighters, in charge of Forest Ranger LEE HOLLINGSHEAS, are missing and are believed to have perished Saturday night when their camp at Big Creek, a tributary of the St. Joseph river, sixteen miles from Avery, Idaho, was swept by flames. This word was brought to Spokane today by W. D. MCLELLAN, a newspaper photographer. MCLELLAN was one of the relief party which made the trip to Big creek Sunday to rescue survivors. The heat was so intense that the party was unable to approach the spot where the camp had stood.

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 23 Aug 1910

Because of scarcity of water, beer is being used at Wallace, Idaho, for drinking purposes.

Soldiers of the Twenty-fifth United States infantry, colored, who are patrolling Wallace under direction of MAYOR HANSEN, have been given orders to shoot vandals, whose depredations have become serious.

Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound trains through the burned district, which are carrying refugees are being furnished with guards of colored soldiers.

The discipline, valor and general efficiency of the negro troops is eliciting the highest praise from residents of the burned district.

The report from Spokane to the effect that nine sisters and forty-two patients from the Providence hospital at Wallace, en route for Missoula, had been hemmed in by forest fires and burned to death is untrue. The sisters and patients arrived in this city on the first train, and are being cared for here.

The loss in Wallace is estimated at $1,000,000. One hundred buildings were destroyed. The hospitals are full of injured, a number of them being blind.

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 23 Aug 1910

Partial List of Dead.

HENRY LILERMAN, Darwood, Idaho.
V. NICHOLSON, aged seventeen, Gem, Idaho.
LESLIE SELLERS, aged eighteen, Gem, Idaho.
S. D. ADAMS, aged thirty, Chicago
A BENSTON, Hillsdale, Wis.
ERNEST __GIN, aged sixty, Wallace Idaho.
JOSEPH C. BODY, Wallace, Idaho.
RODERICK AMES, rancher, Big creek.
JOSEPH BEAUCHAMP, rancher, Big creek, Idaho.

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 23 Aug 1910

Ten of Party Dead.

WALLACE, Idaho, Aug. 23.-STEVE R. MARQUETTE, of Independence, Ia., who was a member of Ranger Bell's party of thirty-seven men that was hemmed in by the flames, at BEAUCHAMP s ranch, on Big fork, of the Couer d'Alene river, ten miles from Wallace, arrived here today and reports that ten of the party are dead and eight in the hospital camp, four being blind and four suffering from broken legs.

Five of the uninjured men are assisting a physician in nursing the unfortunates.

Among the dead are JOSEPH BEAUCHAMP and RODERICK AMES, well known ranchers who had distinguished themselves by bravery in the fight against the flames.

MR. MARQUETTE says.

"When the flames swept up the canyon of the Big fork, we found ourselves surrounded on all sides by fire. We ran back to the clearing at BEAUCHAMP's ranch. BELL ordered us to lie down in a pool formed by the creek. BEAUCHAMP, AMES and the others who perished, sought the shelter in an opening of the hill, which BEAUCHAMP had dug for his valuables. The water in the pool where the men who escaped lay was only five inches deep and the sparks and hot wind compelled us to turn over every few minutes to avoid being roasted.

"We breathed through wet garments. Tobacco boxes and razors in the pockets of the men melted or broke from the heat. We lay two hours in the water."

Supervisor WEIGEL said to the Associated press correspondent today that he took the gloomiest view of the situation regarding the 200 rangers missing in the St. Joe river country, thirty-five miles southeast of Wallace. They were under Ranger KOOTKEY, a graduate of the Yale forestry school and one of the most expert foresters in the service.

The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 25 Aug 1910

Articles transcribed by Linda Houston. Thanks, Linda!

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