Show TALE OF FRO M nn I 1 MIN ICH ICAN fifteen people lose los e their lives a result of forest fires which sweep over country relief train loaded with people driven from their homes is wrecked and women and chil dran fall victims to 1 flames alpena alach fifteen people lost their lives in the burning of the detroit adroit mackinac Mackl nac railway relief train which was carrying the inhabitants of the little village of metz twenty three miles north of here to safety front the forests forest fires which were swooping sweeping their homes the ill fated train was waa ditched b by sp spreading g rails at siding a 0 few miles south of metz aletz and the terrified refu gees were forced to abandon the cars and abd rush for safety either down the track with burning forests on either side or into the ploughed sloughed hed fields near the siding Elev eleven enof of the victims were women nomen and children who were unable to c escape quickly enough from the gondola car which they were occupying their charred bodies wore were found there friday when rescuers reached i tire the scene two of the men victims vere members of the train crew pour 1 additional fatalities occurred in the neighborhood of tho the wreck friday night mr and mrs fred wager died aiom heat and exposure on their farm near the scene of the wreck and mr air arid and mrs airs jr lost their lives III hi their burning house near the siding where the wreck occurred when the forest fires closed in about the little village a special train of three empty box cars and two coal gondolas was as rushed to metz aletz in harg of john E kinville conductor william foster engineer arthur lee fireman and william bartlett brakeman As rapidly as possible tho the people and nd their goods were loaded into the cars somo refused to abandon their goods or the train might have left ahe e irain started started ane t here re 1 were about frightened people aboard the flames were already sweeping through tire village engl aleer roster foster started his train for al pena nearing crossing he taw bilzing piles of cedar ties on both sides of the track opening wide the tha throttle Ih lie he tried to dub dash through tit at full speed but the heat had loosened the he rails and they had spread and the train left the track piles or ties surrounded it and in an instant the cars caught fire the terror stricken people caught by the peril I 1 from which they were fleeing ju jumped alp d r irom from the cars and rushed down the track three mothers and their little 11 cries were not quick enough TI they loy vere crowded in the gondola car where they were caught drakeman brakeman william bartlett sprang into the vater tank behind the engine only to be lite literally rally boiled to death as the flames swept over it engineer F fos OS ter and conductor Kiny lile fled dow down 11 the track through the fire and smoke and were the first to reach the village r of and report the wreck and r osk ask for assistance from here behind them staggered a burned and wound i ed procession of refugees ro from the wrecked train it was d a fearful march i over the hot ties with the flames from the burning woods on either cither side of the track roaring and snapping in J their faces engineer foster was ter rubly burned about the head and face lut lt it is thought that he will recover conductor kinville was badly scorched james white was totally blinded by burns |