Show TOWNS DESTROYED BY FOREST FIRES One Hundred Dead and Thousands Homeless in Crows Nest District Dis-trict of Canada Six Towns In the Path of the Flame Are Wiped Out the Terror Stricken Residents Fleeing to the Open Country for Their Lives Cranbrook B CSix towns on tho Crows Nest branch of the Canadian Pacific railroad have been wiped out many others are In danger of destruc tion over 100 lives have beeen lost thousands are homeless and a property prop-erty loss Into the millions has been caused by the fiercest forest fire ever known In the history of western Canada Can-ada The fire was In the Elko valley the richest coal and lumber district In British Columbia The district is situated sit-uated In the extreme southeastern corner cor-ner of the province Just north of tho Montana state line The towns known to have been destroyed de-stroyed together with their population popula-tion arc Fertile 5000 Michel 1600 Coal Creek 1500 Sparwood 200 Hosmer 400 Crows Nest 1000 One hundred square miles have already al-ready been swept by the flames and It is feared that scores of homesteaders have met death In the deep woods The inhabitants of the towns have fled to open districts in the vicinity In the hope of safety The railway companies have placed all available trains at their disposal For the past month forest fires have been raging In the mountains of the Elk river valley country but they 1 have not been considered serious Saturday Sat-urday morning a heavy wind sprang up from the west and early In the afternoon aft-ernoon the flames appeared over the crest of the mountains to the west of Fernle This ran down tho mountainside mountain-side and before a fire guard could be organized had entered the town Within With-in an hour the town was doomed and the Inhabitants sought safety In flight leaving their all behind them I Town after town has been attacked and destroyed by the flames and many lives have been lost In an endeavor en-deavor to check the flames or save personal effects |