1914 - Teacher and Three Children Burn in Terrible Prairie Fire; Three Others May Die and Flames Are Still Raging
School Children Near Belfield Try to Escape From the Path of Seething Flames Fanned by Thirty-Mile Gale; Bodies Found Huddled Together Only Four Rods From Where They Would Have Been Safe.
Dickinson, N. D., Nov. 6. The worst prairie fire tragedy in the history of this country occurred this afternoon, when a teacher and three pupils of a country school were burned to death, and three other children so badly burned that their death is only a question of hours.
The fire was started some 17 miles southwest of Belfield, about noon, by a threshing outfit, which was moving to a new setting, and, fanned into a devastating flame by a 30-mile gale, swept on to claim a terrible toll of life and property.
Saw Fire Coming.
About 1 o’clock, Miss Gladys HOLLISTER and her little flock of 12 school children in the Davis school, 12 miles southwest of Belfield, saw the fire, about five miles away, coming up the valley towards them. Frantic with fright, they left the building, which tonight...
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