Since 1910, the fire was the largest forest fire in American history, perhaps in world history. Now, almost 100 years later, the blackened spirits giant cedars stand silent witness to the devastation and death that August has led wild winds.
In little more than 48 terrible hours, starting from the late afternoon of Saturday, August 20, Hell, more than eight billion board feet of virgin timber to 3,000,000 acres swallowed up in western Montana and Idaho,caused the deaths of 78 firefighters and 8 civilians and decimating $ 13.5 million in personal property. Forest fires are more deadly, but no one moved, or how brutally fast on a large trellis desert home as well as massive fire of 1910.
Accounts mention the firestorm Edward Steel, a forester who has written hundreds of feet of flames in the night sky "shot powered by a wind so violent tornado that flattened more fire .... that falls to the ground in largeSharp curves, in fact, a true red demon from hell. "
Hurricane wind speed canyons crematoria. Of the 86 who died 28 or 29 firefighters - trying to escape death only to be captured in a vertical groove - the story is unclear.
Hysterical, in a state of shock and confusion, the men fled for their lives, to block the harsh smoke searing lungs and the visual field. The fires, thick smoke, the intense, blinding heat, and the flames were crackling inevitable.Many men, too afraid to face death by fire, took his own life with gunshot wounds. A man jumped from a train on fire. Two firefighters have found themselves to their fate and just went up in flames, as her classmates watched in horror, from where they had sought refuge in the protrusion of a stream bank.
Eyewitnesses describe the terror of those who fought the fires experienced in 1910 and lived to tell about it. - Evergreen Magazine, Winter Edition 1994-1995
"A survivor told aJournalist, "The fire turned into trees and strange twists men, like Roman candles exploding".
Extracts from the accounts Ranger Edward Pulaski fire on Placer Creek near Wallace, Idaho. Pulaski was a ranger in Coeur d'Alene National Forest in 1910.
His personal file contained this written evaluation from his boss, Forest Supervisor, WG Weigle, "Mr. Pulaski is a man of most excellent rating, conservative, very familiar with the region, withThe proposed region for over 25 years. Will be paid by the veterans as one of the safest and best men in the amount of a crew of men on the hills in view. "
"As expected, Rangers led Pulaski and his crew through the darkness and led by a hell storm of wind tunnels for the safety of War Eagle Mine. In the years after the fire, was revered for his heroism, perhaps because it was everyone's idea of what a hero should look like took over.She wore a striking resemblance to the actor, Gregory Peck, standing six foot three, had steel blue eyes and hit a presence wherever he went. "
"Some cry, others pray" - has captured the wood fire at the mouth of the mine tunnel, so I stood at the entrance and hung wet blankets over the opening and tried to keep the flames back from my hat with water , which was fortunately in the mine and threw it on the wood. The men were in a panic for fear that some, Pray, some cry. Many of them soon unconscious of terrible heat, smoke and gas fire ... Also, I finally fell unconscious. I do not know how long I was in this state, but must have been for hours. I remember a man saying: "Come out, boys, the boss is dead." I responded: "How the hell is." I got up and felt the cool air circulating through the mine. The men were all to be aware. E 'was 5.00 in the morning ... "
"We had burned Shoesto make our way through the rubble and burning logs up smoking. When walking, crawling on hands and knees. I do not know how we fell. There have been injured in a terrible state, all of us, or burned. I was blind, and my hands were burned from trying to keep the fire from the tunnel. Our shoes were burned our feet and our clothes were dry cloth ... "
Another Holocaust survivor called the fire destruction - "The Green, standing in the forest yesterday had disappeared, andits place a charred and smoking ruins of the mass of melancholy. Virgin trees, as the eye could see were broken or down, without a single green branch. Miles of trees - sturdy, large trees - placed prone ... The men off their thirst for small streams, immediately became deathly ill. The clean and pure water, which had grown up with miles of ash a strong alkaline solution, contaminated by dead fish, killed by lye. After that we drank only water source. "
DesignDisaster
The 1909-1910 winter was cold with little snow. Weather fronts east bound from the Pacific, ventilated usually buried in three feet of snow, but their anger over the Cascades. Only a small percentage of moisture was at home for as northern Idaho and western Montana performed. The area, which is less than one inch of rainfall from January to June and the driest was in everyone's minds.
The temperature rose in the late evening andThunderstorms with lightning and thunder, free of moisture caused fires in the desert. Glacier National Park in mid-May was already under siege. Several fires in the upper district of northern Idaho and northwestern Montana, as the men and teams pack together to fight the fires. Reports came in every day from swollen feet Blacks, Cabinet, Clearwater, Flathead, Lolo and Kaniksu forests by forest fires again, their size could move at a speed faster than a man three times.
In1910 the management of the timber was still a new idea in the United States. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt established the U.S. Forest Service to manage national forests with the aim of the county, with a steady supply of quality water and timer. At that time the emphasis was on conservation policy and the order that the best way to preserve the wood to take care of themselves, to protect against forest fires.
Although newly formed and inexperienced, the U.S. Forest Service clearlyrecognized the imminent danger of the situation and recruited thousands of men to combat the growing number of forest fires in the remote north-western states.
Prospector is packed their gear and moved from high hill, the settlers and ranchers equipment buried or removed from harms way and put their families and animals closer to the River. City and held on down the path and were encouraged to move to safe areas in Spokane or Missoula.
When the fireSeason has progressed, so has the number and size of fires that raged across the desert. Equipment, expertise and manpower were in short supply. Joe Haim, a graduate from Washington State College in 1909, was employed as an expert in Coeur d 'Alene National Forest and described the difficulties and obstacles encountered by firefighters. "There were no trails or roads, and we had to go 65 miles to get the fire when we were initially sent ... It gave more time at hometense as a small flame. ". Joe Haim was reportedly frightened crew at gunpoint, to escape a fire before they could escape impossible to keep his heroic and decisive action saved many lives.
The drought continues in the summer and several inches of rain that has arrived has blessed the area annually. Moisture wicked hot, dry winds from the floor of the forest, drained and water courses usually withered grass green grass, grain and livestock suffered. All necessaryElements were present for a catastrophic fire.
On 20 August, a strong cold front, hurricane speed winds that have brought fresh oxygen to feed the fires spread. Previously controlled, low-intensity fire mushrooms in a giant fireball, fire dormant trees and crowned in a hell of flames several miles wide and hundreds of meters exploded. Toxic smoke blackened the landscape as the day went straight to the darkest night. In Denver, 800 miles from the epicenterThe firestorm has fallen, the temperature is 19 degrees in 10 minutes and at 5.00 clock a wind came roaring in Denver, they moved with the toxic smoke from the fires north-west.
Firefighters were scattered in the forest by surprise. Hampered by the intense heat, smoke blinding and dangerous terrain, many were trapped and unable to escape the flames. Some survived by crawling into caves or tunnels, or soaking with water and fixed in streams andWatercourses. The inhabitants of small villages in the area have fled by train and were desperate and turn the fire back against the wall of the terrible fire racing towards them.
On the morning of August 21, the devastation was obvious, and shocking. More than a third of the city of Wallace, Idaho, was burned. Near Grand Forks was in ruins. Across the city DeBorgia Lookout Pass, Taft, Haugen and Henderson have been destroyed. Dense smoke filled the sky to the east as New York Stateand as far south of Denver, Colorado. Sailors cruise the Pacific said they could not see the stars through the smoke.
Two days later, on 23, swept a secondary cold front in the Pacific delete a deluge of rain. The "Big Burn" has finally been extinguished, however. Do not get lost in life and the lives forever changed the experience it will take centuries for a forest is restored to normal.
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