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Show HUNDREDS DEAD IN FORES! FIRES SEVERAL SMALL TOWNS ARE WIPED OUT BY THE ONRUSH-ING ONRUSH-ING FLAMES. Hundreds of Squares Miles of Bush and Farm Land Burned and Many Settlers Meet Death After Futile Fight Against Flames. Englehart, Ont. Forest fires raging rag-ing in northern Ontario are believed to have resulted in the loss of from 150 to 200 lives. Scores of persons per-sons havei been injured, and it Is feared many of them may die. Several small towns have been wiped wip-ed out by the flames. Reports thus far received show that fifty-seven perished at Mushka, a French-Cana-adian settlement, and thirty-four at Matheson. Cochrane has eighteen dead and thirty-four injured; Iroquois falls, fifteen dead and many injured, and Ramore, fifteen dead. The number num-ber killed at Porcupine Junction is not known, but the entire town was destroyed except the railroad station. Tht death list will be materially increased, it is feared, by victims in outlying districts. There are apparently appar-ently well authenticated reports that many prospectors have been trapped at Tashota and Kowash. One farmer and his ten children are known to have been burned, while the man's wife was vainly seeking aid to check the onrushing flames. Mushka, a hamlet consisting of a score of frame buildings and stores, suffered worst. It had been threatened threaten-ed for several days, but the residents lingered in the hope they might save their homes. They waited too long, however, and wtils of fire cut off escape. Hundreds of square miles of bush and farm land have been burned over. Isolated settlers took refuge in lakes and rivers, leaving all their belongings be-longings behind. |