Next
Story Back Table of ContentsPhoto Album
On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, havoc, horror and desolation literally
square miles of death swept down upon this peaceful district.
The fire demon, breaking homes and hearts, snatched in its wake the lives
of 12 from one family of three brothers; 4 from another; completely annihilated
a third family; and claimed a victim from still another, bringing the dreadful,
shocking toll of the otherwise beautiful and peaceful day, to 17 dead. All
were laid to rest yesterday and today in graves in Emo, Fort Frances and
Burriss.
In the McKenzie Hospital are 9 other victims of Monday afternoon's awful
blazing inferno that practically anhiliated Dance Township, about 20 miles
from here. Some without sight, all of them wracked with pain from terrible
burns to their bodies and with hearts broken by that tragic nightmare, which
in one swoop took from them nearly all their loved ones.
Added to this terrible toll of 17 deaths are three others at or near International
Falls. The dead are:
Dance area: Benny Fults, 25; Mrs. Violetta LaBelle, 33, wife of William
LaBelle; Abigail LaBelle, 2; Robert LaBelle, 4; Arthur LaBelle, 6; Violetta
LaBelle, 8; Margaret LaBelle, 11; Mrs. Sadie LaBelle, 27, wife of Noah LaBelle;
Florence LaBelle, 2 months; Calvin LaBelle, 3; Walter LaBelle, 5; Charles
LaBelle, 6; Maxine LaBelle, 11, daughter of Frank LaBelle; Sam Fyle, 21;
Mrs. Sam Fyle, 19; Donald Fyle, 18 months; Mabel Larson, 12.
Minnesota area: Orville F. Williams, 18, C.C.C. worker, Little Falls; Joseph
Dardis, 67, International Falls; Fred Seris, Dunseith, N.D.
Victims today who are "progressing favourably" in the McKenzie
Hospital are; Noah LaBelle, Mrs. Frank LaBelle and sons, Douglas and Dearl,
ages 7 and 6 respectively; Nap LeBrun and Robert Featherstone, pulpwood
cutters. Frank LaBelle and Noah's little son, Teddy, tonight have developed
pneumonia.
Little Berdina, 8, daughter of Noah LaBelle is in a critical condition although
her condition at the time of going to press was "slightly improved".
The raging inferno of the forest in its savage, mad gesture to wipe out
the entire family of three brothers all but succeeded. From the Noah LaBelle
family it claimed five of the eight lives, a mother and baby and three other
children; from the Wm. LaBelle's a mother and a baby and three other children;
the only survivors being Bill and the two eldest girls who were in town
with a load of pulpwood. From Frank LaBelle's family of four, it took little
Maxine, the only daughter. Of the Benny Fults family a 17-year-old wife
and a few weeks' old baby were spared, to carry on without a husband and
father.
It was constable Hamilton, who found the remains of the LaBelle mothers
and children on the road near the homes. Maxine, rescued by N.L. Croome,
succumbed from injures in McKenzie's hospital here.
"When we arrived at the scene, we found the 11 bodies scattered over
the road," stated Constable Hamilton in an interview with the Times.
"The two mothers had tried to protect their babies by covering them
with their bodies. It was a terrible sight Every few feet or so, we would
find a body twisted or burned, either in the ditch or on the road. It was
a burnt road of death."
In the tragedy which overtook the Fyle family, the story of the brave young
wife's fight to aid her husband was told yesterday by her mother, Mrs. Ole
Larson, who with her family was moved here from the striken Dance area late
Monday night. Mrs. Fyle (an expectant mother) had only arrived at the Larson
home on Sunday. Monday fore-noon when the brush fires threatened her parents'
home, she felt she must rush to her husband's aid a mile-and-a-half distance,
where he was cutting pulpwood, to warn him of the impending danger.
Taking her infant son with her and her sister, Mabel, Mrs. Fyle set out
on the bush trail.
She was successful in reaching her husband on her heroic mission as the
position of the bodies foretold.
Searchers found the four bodies strewn for some four hundred yards in the
cleared out area where Fyle was working for Henry Fults (brother of the
deceased, Ben), They had apparently become trapped as fires swept around
them. The charred remains of little Donald were found in the doorway of
the smoldering Fults farm home. It is believed he became frightened and
either fell from his mother's arms or crawled away from her. Some one hundred
feet in front of the house lay the body of Sam Fyle, face down as if trying
to escape. Further on the bush trail lay Mrs. Fyle and still further away,
twelve-year-old Mabel/ "It was a ghastly sight," exclaimed Provincial
Police Constable Martin Ericksen who was conducting a search of the district.
Benny Fults charred body was found in the fire-scarred area near the homestead
of his brother, Henry. His wife and young baby were safe with relatives.
Next
Story Back Table of Contents