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Show Destruclion of Magnificent Magnifi-cent Trees Becomes More Widseprcacl Spokane, Wash, Aup 21. News that comes from tho burning to rest-4 of Idaho, Montana ami Washington increases the seriousness of thu situation sit-uation so far as the destruction of the jnagnlflcent trees is concerned, but reduces the estimate of loss of life. Only fifty four pyrsons aje knoan to have perished. The hundreds hun-dreds of national forest rangers who yesterday were reportr-d mi?s!n; and probably dead have not all turned up safe, but many of them have. The fire-swept country coniains many lakes and streams of water. an.1 by taklu refup? in thse the sl.lllful rangers probably will be safe from tho fire. Fires Still Spreading. Everywhere, except in the neighborhood neigh-borhood of the towns, the fires ar still spreading. Many companies of United Stales and state troopa arc on the way to tho red battlefield, hoping hop-ing to out-maneuver an enemy that cannot J" conquered ty a front attack. at-tack. The best hope of the threatened threaten-ed forests for delivcrauee, however. Is In the sky. Rain and snow have fallen In Montana and li;,rht rain in Idaho, and t lie season of th? fall rains Is near at hand. Stories of the blinding and burning of fire-fighters have made It difficult to obtain I men In the titles to go Into the blazing blaz-ing woods. Six injured men from tho Bii creek camp were brought to the Wallcae hospital last night Thy were W. C. C.niT, Black Bear, Mont.; A. T. Cox. North Yakima, Wash.. O. N. Ward, : San Franciico; Chris Hanson. Whlte-f.ehls; Whlte-f.ehls; Joe Marko. Murray, Idaho, and William Christensen. Spokane. All Arp Severely Burned. All are mure or lss severely burned burn-ed and some are badly bruised by lulling trees. None will die. Marko, an Italian boy of IS. Is one of the most seriously injured. Three men u re. from tho Bell crew, of whom ten were killed. tre will be brought I from Wallace from their camp todav ; Word from Avery, Idaho, says that army surgeons are enring for the in Jured In that neighborhood The following dispatches received last nlcht from Lev.Ulon and Stiles, in the Clearwater ciuintry of Idaho. I are tvplcal of the news that Is received re-ceived from various points in north- i ern Idaho: ! Fires Smoulderinq in Timber. 1 A forest fire, smouldering since Snt-1 Snt-1 ttrday in the timber six miles south 1 ol CuMesnc, on Craig mountain, Tuesday afternoon burned tbp Den-j Den-j tcrs schoolhouse and n number of runhcors' cabins In that vicinity. The fire destroyed nearh I.imiii acres of timber, but It is now under control Reports from the forest fires on I the Middle fork and in the Klk City I region state that the wind blew a nale frti Tuesday ami the ground gained gain-ed by the rangers and volunteers during dur-ing the lull In the tempest Monday nif.ht has been lost Major Fenn, who is In command of "mi men, con-! con-! siders the situation desperate, and although the almost exhausted fire-fiKhtars fire-fiKhtars are working with renewed energy, he has little hope of making any headway. However, the win. I bus ial)r-n and the flames are al-I al-I vancing less rapidly, j Miles of Unbroken Front. ; United fires at llvlorado and Old Man's creek hnvu an unbroken front of twentv-five mtlci. evtenllng from . the Selway loathe Lock saw and cutting cut-ting off the only trails over which reinforcements and supplies cau be sent to tlie forest. "-rs endeavoring to surround the fires Nearlj ion men who were sent to the assistance of the rancers in that locality a week ago have hen unable to get through. Snyder's pack train, with supplier for ' the twenty rangers at a cnnip beyond Old Man's cre-k. is still beleaguered ' at Rocky Ridge with a number of volunteers vol-unteers from Fpokan-?. anl McDan-; McDan-; lei's train Is surmundi d near 1'blo:- fdo crek. The men were compelled 1 to hurriedly bury the load, but the I saddles and pack equipment were I lost. The men and horses nairowlv I i scaped by making a desperate break I through I he line of lire In a brief J lull la the wind. The horses had their manes and tails singed off. and several of the men were badly scorched, scorch-ed, hut suffered no xnous Injury. Ten men were surrounded by tho flamc-s on the Selway river Tuesday morning while in camp, but escaped by scaling the rock" wall of the canyon. can-yon. They threw their tools Into the stream, but had no time to bury their camp i-quipincni and supplies. In the lEk City district the situation situa-tion is Kteudllj growing worse. Tho (own is considered ,-afe. but the surrounding sur-rounding country " will b.- (devastated The Campbell. Maxwell. HawklnFon ami Rlihfield cattle ranches eat of Klk, are reported burning and the plants of the Gold Crown. Providence , and Winner's cabin mines are said to ! have beu destroyed. J Fire Rapidly Nearing Elk. j A lire which started twelve miles I tMUitli of Klk. Monday, is rapl lly approaching ap-proaching the town. It reached tho Red river rangers' camp Tuesday r;orning. and the men were compelled to flee with nothing but their clothing. cloth-ing. J |
