August 25, 1944

 

Hundreds Volunteer to Aid Four Fire Department Crews.

Door County’s worst forest fire in many years was still burning Thursday although under control, after having swept thru 200 acres of timberland since it stated form an unknown cause in a field on the Fred Wieth property southwest of the bend in County Trunk ZZ near Appleport.

Hundreds of volunteers were recruited by fire departments of Sister Bay, Ephraim, Fish Creek, and Baileys Harbor, and the Peninsula Park crew also joined in the fight with its special equipment, augmented by bull dozers obtained from as far as Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay for the purpose of cutting fire lanes and plowing up ground to keep the blaze from spreading.

All buildings, except for a small shed, were saved, but large quantities of cedar, pine, and balsam were destroyed. In some places, due to the extreme dry weather, the fire went to a depth of three feet into the ground.

A passerby, Richard Linden, first sighted the fire at the Wieth place, formerly owned by Algot Hanson, and hastily turned in the alarm. Quick work by the Sister Bay fire department resulted in saving the buildings owned by the Wieths, who had recently returned to their home in Illinois, and also the buildings of John Larson, farm and orchard owner, on the Appleport road to the east.

Other fire departments and the park crew were called later when a northwest wind forced the blaze through the dense woods to Lake Michigan where the A. Wyman and Young cottages were endangered. By midnight Monday, the fire was under control, but it broke out again, resulting in calling 50 Jamaican cherry pickers from the Ellison Bay camp Tuesday and 40 ore form Sturgeon Bay Wednesday.

Before noon, a couple of bulldozers started leaving the scene, thinking the danger was over, but they were called back again to extend fire lanes, when in spite of numerous back-fire operations, the flames continued creeping outward beyond the original confines, threatening to sweep into Marshall’s point on North Bay to the south, where there are miles of good timber and scores of summer homes.

By Thursday, however, the fire was definitely under control, but it may require close watching for a considerable time.