The Idaho Press   September 1, 1910
Page 3

SPENDS WILD NIGHT
IN A TUNNEL
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    Jules LeDuce, a Wallace music teacher, arrived in Missoula yesterday after a trip that has been full of adventures for him. He arrived at Falcon in time to join Superintendent Marshall in his flight for tunnel 27 and was with him during that night, says a Missoula report. LeDuce’s story confirms the horrors of the afternoon and night as expressed by Superintendent C. H. Marshall and Conductor Vandercook. Mr. LeDuce passed three burned bodies and 14 dead horses on his walk into St. Regis and assisted in covering one of the bodies. The bodies were all partially burned, but his belief is that the dead men were Italians.
    A copy of a telegram from Chief Engineer E. J. Pearson of the Puget Sound to President Williams was received at the local Puget Sound office yesterday. An excerpt from Mr. Pearson’s telegram reads as follows:
    "Nothing could live last evening unless in tunnels. Fires of yesterday and last night have swept practically all the country from Avery to St. Regis. Nothing could have lived on the mountains last evening except for the tunnels."
    Superintendent C. H. Marshall is in a position to corroborate this statement and he does so most emphatically, according to the Missoulian. Superintendent Marshall and Superintendent of Bridges and Building W. R. Lanning walked to Avery Sunday morning. Mr. Lanning started back on a work train to pick up some bridge material and Mr. Marshall had a fire train and was engaged in putting out fires that had started on the bridges. At Falcon Mr. Marshall received a telephone message from the girl operator at Kyle, saying: "A big fire is sweeping down upon us; what shall we do?"
    Mr. Marshall attempted to tell her to get into a tunnel, but before he could answer the wire went down. Mr. Marshall immediately started his train on a run for Kyle to pick up four families that he knew were at that place. He had proceeded but a short distance when he saw that it would be an impossibility to get through the fire, which was closing in on both sides. They turned and made a run a run for tunnel 27. Mr. Marshall told the engineer to stop for every man that he saw along the right-of-way and several were picked up. Tunnel 27 was reached after a run through fire on each side of the track. The heat was so intense that it was impossible to stand up and during the greater part of the run the people were lying down. When tunnel 27 was reached the cars were smoking and would probably have caught in a short time. Tunnel 27 is a short one, being but 365 feet in length, but it is located on a 10-degree curve and this is what undoubtedly saved the 167 people that were on the train with Mr. Marshall. It was impossible to stand outside the tunnel and observe the flames, as they were whipping past both entrances of the tunnel and rendered all passage suicidal. Mr. Marshall said: "I will never forget that ride. Six or seven trees would fall at a time and every minute I expected one to roll across the track and cut off our only avenue of escape. The scene beggars description. The roar of the fire was deafening and the heat terrific. We stayed in the tunnel until the next morning and the way that different nationalities and different classes of people mingled and fraternized shows what a leveler is danger.
    "Mr. Lanning had forgotten that we had a fire train at Falcon and made an attempt to get back to us through the fire, but it had swept in between us and cut off any possibility of reaching us. Mr. Lanning took refuge in tunnel 32.
    "Conductor Kintz made a run to the St. Paul pass tunnel that was even worse than ours. He started with 100 men from Bates & Rogers’ construction camp and ran through flames and over bridges whose flooring was one large blaze. He managed to reach the tunnel in safety, but had only a few minutes to spare. There is no doubt but that our tunnels saved scores of lives."

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