FOREST FIRES SPREAD TO MICHIGAN TOWNS

OSCODA ENTIRELY WIPED OUT NEIGHBORING CITY BURNING.

Inhabitants Being Rushed Out in Freight Cars and Lake Steamer, Other Places in Danger.

Bay City, Mich., July 11.---The town of Oscoda, seventy-six miles north of Bay City, has been wiped out by fire; the town of Au Sable, opposite it, across the Au Sable River, is now on fire, and the 1.800 inhabitants of the two towns are being taken on board a big steamer that arrived at Au Sable and a train made up of freight cars picked up in the Au Sable and Oscoda freight yards, while another train is being sent late tonight from East Tawas to take away refugees.

A lineman succeeded in getting around the fire and tapped the wires four miles south of the town. He said there had been no loss of life.

Nothing further has been heard from Alphes, fifty-one miles north of Oscoda, but a message has just been received saying that the relief train with fire apparatus sent there from this city was wrecked somewhere north of East Tawas.

Other Towns Endangered.

The fire at Cheboygan, where a huge mountain of sawdust, which has been burning for weeks, got beyond control yesterday, is now in a furious blaze, but it is not known whether there is danger to the city. Lewiston, Alger and Turner, all north of here, are in danger from forest fires. The Alpena and Oscoda fires originated in slab yards.

Forty cars and two bridges on the Michigan Central near Graying were burned this afternoon.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 12 Jul 1911

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The fire at Alpena was reported to be under control, the wind having died somewhat at sundown. The M[illegible] tannery sustained a loss estimated at $100,000. The Walker-Veneor and Northern Planing mills $2,000.

The loss of H. M. Loudson's company at Au Sable, proprietors of industries in many of the adjoining villages of Au Sable and Oscoda, is estimated at $500,000.

Belleville News-Democrat, Belleville, IL 12 Jul 1911

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List of Known Dead.

The known dead in this section are F. Flynn, A. Yuille and W. F. Fletcher, burned when caught in a little lake into which they retreated to escape the onrushing fire and Billy Moore, a railway contractor, with three foreigners who were drowned trying to ford a river. The flames swept down on South Porcupine and Pottsville almost without warning. The alarm came just in time for the people to rush for the lake but they were forced to abandon all of their belongings.

Gasoline boats, row boats and even hasty improvised rafts were utilized to get the refugees, many of whom were women and children across the lake to Golden City. There all with other survivors of the fires in the north are at present fighting back the fire which scorched the outskirts of that place. There are only a few days' provisions left in Golden City.

Story of a Refugee.

BAY CITY, Mich., July 12.---Among the refugees who arrival here early to-day on the D. and M. relief train from Ausable and Oscoda, wiped out by flames. Mrs. Doris Diamond, a survivor of the Iroquois theatre fire in Chicago. She said that the scenes at Oscoda were more horrifying than the Chicago holocaust.

"The people were compelled to rush from their homes with whatever they had on their backs," said Mrs. Diamond, "and run for their lives to the lake and swamps, so rapidly did the flames spread. My four children, my sister and myself fled from our house as the flames roared down upon us and joined the panic stricken crowd fleeing for places of safety.

"I saw women and children fall upon the road exhausted from the smoke and heat and it seemed incredible that all escaped with their lives. My sister was with us when we started from out home, but she stopped to assist a woman with her children and we became separated and I don't known whether she is alive or not. People who gathered up their personal effects in bundles before leaving their homes were compelled to drop them in their rush for safety.

The Wilkes Barre-Times-Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA 12 Jul 1911

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GREATEST DANGER OVER.

Loss in Five Canadian Countless Totals Over $1,500,000---Story of Heroic Life-Saving.

Detroit, Mich. July 13.---Reports received tonight from both the Lake Huron and the Michigan Central Railroad districts of Northern Michigan indicate that for the present at least the winds, the greatest danger from the fires, is over. The district from Alpena to Cheboygan has plenty of smouldering[sic] forest fires, but no further losses have been reported. Millersburg Tower and Relief at Oscoda and Au Sable is now a simple matter, as scarcely 300 people remain near the stricken towns. These are being sheltered supply of food for the present. The principal demand for relief is at the Tawases, where at least 500 refugees are quartered.

The town of Waters, which last night was apparently doomed has been saved by the fire departments of Bay City and Gaylord. The Stephens Lumber Company's loss at Waters is about $300,000 at the village and probably as much more in standing timber.

Every town along the Michigan Central today reported fires in the woods, but that they were making no headway. Many farmers, however, have lost their homes, barns and crops.

The loss to date around Grayling Montgomery, Crawford, Oscoda and Cheboygan Counties will total more than $1,500,000.

Story of Heroic Work.

Eugene E. Thompson, an Oscoda business man and fire chief, who last night brought a party of refugees to Detroit from the burned towns of Au Sable and Oscoda, furnished the first connected story which has come out of the fire-swept district.

The first serious fire on the outskirts of the town was discovered Sunday, and a crew fought it until it was under control." he said. "Monday nothing was done, and on Tuesday, aided by high winds, it burst out again with great fury.

"The first alarm in Oscoda came in at 3 o'clock, from Mrs. Archer's house. President Cowley and myself procured pails from the Loud Company's office to fight the flames which had spread to the Catholic Cemetery. The next alarm come in from the Au Sable township slab piles. Just about the time the hose was working well we got an alarm from the village of Oscoda. The first to go was the Oscoda and Au Sable canning factory and in a few minutes the fire was general, breaking out north, east, south, and west all at once.

"Our equipment of three hose carts and thirty-six volunteers fought for an hour and a half, with a good water supply. Then the flames reached the pumping station and it went out of commission.

"A few of the inhabitants, among them myself and my father and mother, went to the steamer Niko. Capt. Meyers, which was lying at my own dock. It is impossible to say enough praise of Capt. Meyers. He acted the the here, remaining at the dock until it was a mass of flames. When the boat finally drifted into the open it was on fire for and aft. The vessel's apparatus put out the flames.

"After he had pulled away into the open, Capt. Meyers rounded to for an hour and a half, until danger from firing sparks forced him to the lake. By remaining he was enabled to puck up a fishboat containing several persons. He went 150 miles out of his course to take us to Port Huron, and he and his crew gave us everything they possessed, their beds and their food. When we left the dock between 200 and 300 people were on board, thirty of whom were nursing children, cut off from short, with the tramway overhead afire. There was no escape for them unless they plunged into the water. I saw Peter Duval struggle down the tramway with his aged father-in-law on his back, but the firemen forced him back, and I can not tell whether he was saved. I saw a woman with two children in her arms rush out on the deck. One of the children fell into the water and a young man jumped in after it and rescued it.

"When the fire started the wind was blowing about fifty miles an hour, from the southwest. Then it shifted to the westward and the flames completely swept the towns. Two hours afterward it shifted to the northeast and swept the blaze back over the ground it had already traveled, licking up the whole of Oscoda and Au Sable city and township for a radius of three miles."

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 14 Jul 1911

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No further extensive damage of loss of life is expected. The towns of Cochrane, South Porcupine and Pottsville have been obliterated. The fire swept clean the townships of Langmuir, Eldorado, Shaw, Delo Oro, McArthur and Cripple Creek districts. The known dead total 122, the majority of whom lost their lives at South Porcupine, There are believed to have been many other fatalities and estimates based on unverified reports run as high as 400.

Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 14 Jul 1911

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R. M. Webber, of Lockport, N. Y., one of the survivors escaped from the Dome mine, where 100 were burned to death, by wading into the lake up to his neck. The wave of heat sweeping over the water burned his face badly.

"There were 400 people standing in the lake," said he, "and I saw twenty drown."

Several thousand dollars in currency was saved by J. J. Noss, of Reno, Nev., by canoeing far out into the lake.

A. H. Crampton and Joseph Healy, manager and superintendent, escaped with fifteen employes[sic] by a run of six miles around the lake. They stumbled over bodies along the road and saw a woman pick up a skull and put it in her handbag.

George Lisk, a prospector near the West Dome, saw his brother and partner burn to death. Penned in on all sides by the flames, they fought to safety in a small stream. As the fire swept over the stream Lisk saw his two companions die while he rolled on his back in the shallow water near the bank.

The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, WA 15 Jul 1911

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Fire Victim Is Heiress.

(Associated Press by Leased Wire.)

East Tawas, Mich., July 14.---Miss Belle Stocks, one of the Au Sable fire refugees, who had been employed in a boarding house several months, was found here by her sister, with information that she was one of twenty-one heirs to $41,000 left by an aunt who recently died in Pittsburg, Pa. The money was handed to her as she was leaving to find shelter with a brother in Detroit. She has already given generously of her opportune windfall to other unfortunates.

The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, WA 15 Jul 1911
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!