"BUSH FIRES AGAIN RAGING AND FANNED BY A STRONG WIND," Sault Star. July 4, 1913. Page 1. --- Powder Magazines at Pearl Lake and Schumacher Have Exploded. ---- NEWEST CANADIAN COMMUNITY IS DEBRIS ---- Resident of Belle River Arrives at North Bay with Harrowing Details. ---- Cobalt, July 4. The wind has risen again and is blowing strongly, and the north is once more fighting fire along the T. & N.O. railway.
Cobalt, and its mines, while perfectly safe within their own circle of bare rock, are ringed in by fires. Settlers on the edge of North Cobalt are out fighting hard for their shacks, and the blaze that caused so much consternation at West Cobalt has sprung up again and is driving hard to the southwest.
The fires in theies limit are once again roaring. The Cobalt fire brigade, which spent all Tuesday night safeguarding the powder magazine at Clear Lake were on duty there all last night.
Timmins, July 4. - The powder magazine on the Pearl Lake mine exploded yesterday afternoon, causing a considerable amount of damage to property and much anxiety, but with no harm to anyone. The forest fires were quiet here yesterday, as there was little wind.
Schumacher, July 4. - The powder magazine at Schumacher has blown up, shaking the country for miles around.
North Bay, July 4. - Mr. Courtright, resident engineer at Belle River, 180 miles east of Cochrane on the Transcontinental Railway, arrived in North Bay last night with his wife and baby, but with very little luggage, as with the exception of a few clothes saved by his wife they lost everything in the bush fires which swept over Belle River Tuesday and left nothing but a pile of smoking cinders of one of the newest Canadian communities.
With the Courtright's came Mrs. E. Palm, of Hespeler. Her husband has building contracts on the National Transcontinental. Mr. Courtright describes the Belle Rivet fire as a terrible ordeal, rendered more trying by the presence of six woman and seven children.
There were sixty people in all there when the fire attacked the town. For days the bush fires have raged with black curtains of smoke hiding the sun by day, while the night was illuminated by flames, but the Belle River folks stayed with their possessions and homes, hoping that the fire would pass them by.
