Home Fires

by Susan Cameron

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Annie guided her children to safety inside the mill. Many families were already there. Two men were at the entrance ladling out drinking water to the newly arrived evacuees. Annie made sure her children had their share, and then eased her own parched throat with several gulps. She saw Dr. Smith circulating among the fire victims, treating the most seriously injured first. Many obviously needed hospital care, but she overheard someone say that the hospital had burned to the ground. A few people were clothed only in blankets.

  Annie found a nurse and asked her to look at Bobby’s burned hand. The woman efficiently applied an ointment to the burn and bandaged him up. Annie could tell he was in a lot of pain, but her brave son didn’t cry.

  Annie noticed the schoolteacher, Miss Brown, off by herself, quietly crying into her lace handkerchief. She brought the boys over and asked if she was injured.

  “Oh, I’m just being foolish. So many have lost loved ones and are badly burned, and here I am crying over my new shipment of textbooks and the lovely oak desk the trustees just purchased for me. I watched the school burn to the ground.” She reached out to touch Annie’s hand, “I’m happy to see that you and your children are safe.”

  By six o’clock, rumour was spreading quickly that the fire had changed direction and moved out of the town. But the area was still full of smoke, hot cinders and intense heat. Henry became fussy and Annie tried to nurse him, but she was so dehydrated that she had very little milk.

  Around midnight, a thunderstorm broke out. Lightning flashed through the windows and sporadically lit up the interior of the mill. The downpour was a welcome respite from the earlier heat and dryness. One man who had ventured outside announced that the fire, quite unbelievably, had left the company mercantile store and the town hotel untouched. Soon after the storm ended, it was announced that food would be handed out at the company store. Annie’s children had not eaten in over twelve hours, so she sent Bobby and Jack out at first light. “Go on to the store and line up for whatever food you can get.”

  They came back an hour later with two cans of tomatoes and a loaf of bread. Bobby borrowed a can opener from someone nearby and opened the tins. Bobby, Jack and Georgie took turns fishing for tomatoes with their fingers, careful to not lose a single drop of liquid. Annie tipped a can to Hal’s mouth and he thirstily gulped the juice. Annie had to chuckle when Jack declared, “This tastes as good as Christmas dinner!”

  That morning, Annie noticed that other families were venturing out of the building to check the damage. She decided to go to their property to see what remained, and she knew the boys wanted to look for Mike. She feared what she would see when they got there.

  She approached Miss Brown. “Would you mind watching my three youngest at the hotel? I need to see if I can salvage anything from our farm.”

  The young woman readily agreed, glad to do something helpful.

  Georgie complained. “But Ma, I want to look for Mike too! Can’t I come with you?”

  “I need you to help Miss Brown. You know that Hal doesn’t always listen but he will behave for you. I promise that we won’t be long.”

  A few minutes after Annie, Bobby and Jack left the hotel they heard a loud commotion near one of the freight cars. Annie saw one of the mill supervisors shoving and hitting a smaller Oriental man. From all the shouting, it appeared that the labour crew was refusing to work. To Annie’s shock, the bigger man shoved a protesting smaller man’s face into the still-hot cinders. The labour crew still refused to work in the heat and the supervisor swore.

  “God damn it, I’ll show you buggers!”

  Three muscular lumberjacks and the bullying supervisor forced the labour crew into a hot freight car and locked them in. Annie was so outraged that she stomped towards them. I’m just one small woman but I can threaten to report him to the police. She heard kicking and shouting coming from inside the freight car as the trapped men cried out, “We work! We work!”

  Finally, the freight car was unlocked, just as Annie reached the supervisor, and the men tumbled out, gasping for air. Reluctantly, Annie decided not to confront the bully; she needed to conserve her energy to fight her own battles.

  As she trudged along the railway tracks with Bobby and Jack, Annie was surprised to see that although some of the track had twisted grotesquely in the heat of the fire and many rail ties were burned to ashes, the railway company already had work crews repairing track. The telephone and telegraph lines were still down so she had no way of contacting Jim to let him know that they had survived the fire.

  As they made their way towards home, an occasional breeze gave them a little relief, but the farther they walked, the odour of decomposing flesh became more overpowering; they choked and gasped for breath. A short distance ahead, Annie saw a pile of human remains, charred and decaying, stacked like cordwood beside the track. The boys pulled their shirts over their noses, their eyes wide with shock. She regretted having brought them with her.

  A mile farther along, to her horror, she recognized the body of the boy who had jumped off the train. He and his sister had their arms around each other, their bodies fused by fire in a final embrace. They were still wet from the thunderstorm, lying beside the track and waiting for a rescue that had never came. Annie could think of nothing to say to her crying boys. She wept.

  When they finally came to the ditch where they had been rescued, she found what remained of their wheelbarrow. It was a grey puddle of melted metal. Annie cried at the thought of her lost family photos. She didn’t have a photo of Jim now, and she had lost all of her precious mementoes of Maggie. As they approached the remains of their home, the boys began running around and calling for Mike, kicking at columns of grey ash that had once been trees and watching the towers collapse.

  All that was left of the house were the two wood stoves, now useless. She spent a fruitless half-hour sifting through the rubble, looking for anything salvageable. She then noticed that although the shed over the root cellar had burned to the ground, the cellar door was only singed.

  Entering the root cellar, Annie discovered that all of her jars of preserves had exploded in the intense heat. There was broken glass everywhere. She picked through the sand to search for potatoes and carrots that were untouched by fire, but, she soon realized that they were all roasted and sprinkled with glass shards. All of our hard work was for naught. I’ve no home, nor food for my children. What am I going to do?

  She climbed up out of the root cellar, and she plopped down on the ground. She was overwhelmed by a sense of fear and hopelessness. She was pulled back from her dark thoughts by the sound of Jack crying.

  “I’m scared, Ma. We’ve looked everywhere but we can’t find Mike. And where are we going to live?”

  “Don’t worry, son, I’m sure we can stay with Uncle Alfie for a while. When we get back to the hotel, we’ll let everyone know what Mike looks like and that we’re searching for him. Maybe someone rescued him. Don’t give up hope. There’s nothing more that we can do here now. Let’s walk back to town.” She hoped that she sounded more confident than she felt.

  Fortunately, the bodies by the tracks had been removed while Annie and the boys were at the farm, so they were spared that horrific sight on the return trip. They entered the hotel, exhausted and dejected, and found Miss Brown and the three children; the young woman appeared to be relieved to see Annie.

  “The baby was asleep most of the time, but I was happy to have George to help with Harold. He is a busy little boy. The hotel cook gave George and Harold each a piece of pie. I’m afraid that Harold’s face and hands are still a bit sticky.”

  “Thank you. I know Hal can be a handful. And it seems that our walk was for naught. There’s nothing left on our property and the boys are still looking for our dog.”

  “I’m so sorry. I did hear some good news though.” She told Annie that the rail tracks would be repaired by the next day, and that there were several relief trains coming to take the more severely
injured people to hospitals to the south. “We’ll get our meals here at the hotel until then. The pulp and paper company will foot the bill. Oh, and Camp Borden is sending troops with tents and blankets. You’ll see your husband.”

  At this news, Annie broke down, sinking to the floor and burying her face in her hands sobbing. Miss Brown and the children gathered around, but Annie could not be comforted for quite some time. The young teacher was distraught about causing Annie to cry, and she apologized repeatedly. Annie finally forced herself to stop crying; she knew she was upsetting the children. Their faces were wet with tears too.

  “I’m sorry, I’m fine now. Don’t cry, boys. We’re going to be all right. Daddy’s coming.”

  While Annie and the children were eating their dinner at the hotel, Annie saw Miss Brown approach her. With her was middle-aged bearded man. The young woman introduced Annie to her cousin Tom. “I’ve asked Tom if you and the children could stay over tonight at his home. I have a room at the hotel and I’d offer to share but it’s the size of a closet.”

  “I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs. Kidd.” Tom said in a deep voice as he held out his hand to shake hers. “I know your husband quite well. I’ve worked with Jim many times over the years. My wife and I would be pleased if you and the children would stay with us until you find a place to stay.”

  “Thank you for your kind offer, Tom, but I couldn’t impose.”

  “I insist. We’re among the fortunate few with a home untouched by the fire. We hid in our root cellar during the worst of it. We were lucky there, too – we’ve learned that many families did the same, but suffocated to death!”

  Annie was overwhelmed by his generosity and reluctantly accepted his offer.

  “Thank you. That is so kind of you.” She wondered if Tom had witnessed her tears earlier and was ashamed that she had cried so openly. “It will just be a night or two. I understand that Jim will be here with the army, in a day or so.”

  After their meal, Annie and the children followed Tom to his home, which was just on the outskirts of town. They passed the ashes of many houses as they walked. Most of the town had been reduced to charcoal and dust; not a tree was left. When they passed the ruins of the hospital, Tom told her that the nurses had rescued every patient.

  “They placed the patients on stretchers on the veranda and arranged cars to take them to safety. I heard that one nurse wanted to save her beaver coat, so she tucked it under one of the patients!”

  When they approached Tom’s log home, his wife, Joan, greeted them at the door with a hug and ushered Annie and her boys to a small bedroom behind the kitchen. The room had rough timber walls and one small window. The bed was simply constructed and obviously homemade. Tom’s wife had tried to hide the bleakness of the room with a bright quilt on the bed and a rag rug on the floor. On a pine table Joan had placed a large bowl of water, a bar of yellow soap and a clean flannel rag. Annie wondered guiltily if Tom and Joan had given up their own bedroom.

  She washed the younger boys’ faces and hands and told Jack and Bobby to wash up. The water was black by the time they had finished. She had the older boys sleep across the bed so they could all fit, Hal tucked between Bobby and Georgie. She planned to sleep on the rug on the floor with the baby.

  Her exhausted children quickly fell asleep, but not for long. Bobby, Jack, and Georgie whimpered with nightmares throughout the night, and she repeatedly had to calm them, sitting with them until they drifted back to sleep. She feared the horrors they had witnessed wouldn’t soon fade from their young minds.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  After spending two uncomfortable days in the same sweaty, singed clothing, Annie was relieved to hear that several trains were arriving from the south and other northern communities. One brought doctors, nurses, and emergency medical supplies. It also carried a hundred coffins. Thousands of pounds of food, clothing, and blankets were delivered and set up in large tents. There was also a train coming from Camp Borden, transporting three officers, two hundred tents and a hundred men. She prayed that Jim was on it.

  She waited all day near the hotel hoping to hear that the military train had finally arrived. It was early evening when she thought she heard Jim’s voice calling her name. Afraid it was just wishful thinking, she turned slowly. There she saw him, pale-faced and shaking with emotion, and ran into his arms.

  “Thank God you’re alive!” he said, his voice breaking. “There was no way of knowing, and then the first thing I saw was that stack of coffins. Jesus, you’ve burnt your arms! What about …”

  “The children are safe,” she said, laughing through her tears. “We are all fine.”

  She called the boys, who were just inside the hotel entrance. Bobby came out holding Hal, and Jack was carrying Henry. Georgie was close behind his older brothers. When the three older boys saw their father, they raced tearfully down the stairs and ran to him. Jim let go of Annie and gathered his children in a big hug.

  Then he sent them off to play, and he led Annie to a quiet spot behind the hotel where they sat down on the back steps. She told him what she and the boys had been through over the last few days. He hung his head. “I’m sorry, so sorry that I wasn’t here. I’ll figure something out, Annie. I’ll get you and the boys somewhere safe.”

  “Well, we’re all alive and the family is together for now. I’m so grateful to have you here. But we had expected the military train to arrive yesterday. What happened?”

  “We were forced to wait in the train for hours, stuck behind all the other relief cars. I’ve never known such fear in my life, not knowing for days whether you and our boys had survived.” He held her tightly against his chest as if proving to himself that she was real.

  “When we finally got here, I had to unload tents and supplies first, and when I was finally granted permission to leave, I went straight to our property to look for you and the boys. Of course you weren’t there. I came back to town and asked everyone I met if they knew where you were. At last someone told me that any survivors could be found around the hotel or mill. Ah, Annie, my heart near stopped when I saw you on the hotel steps.”

  Annie knew that the family did not have a lot of time together, as Jim had to return to the temporary army headquarters at Jackpine Junction. The army was setting up shelter for survivors and searching for the missing. Luckily his unit wasn’t given the gruesome task of digging shallow graves for temporary burial until bodies could be sent to their final resting places.

  “I’m allowed a three-day pass to evacuate you and the bairns to Toronto. I’ll send Alfie a telegraph as soon as the lines are back up.”

  “You can come with us?” Annie asked in disbelief.

  “Aye, I’ll go with you to Toronto, but I have to return here. You can stay with your brother until I find another house. The railway company is providing free transportation for evacuees to stay with friends or family elsewhere.”

  “Alfie won’t mind us staying with him for now, and I suppose it’s as good a time as any to meet his new wife. I’ll certainly be happy to get the children away from all of this.”

  While Jim worked with his unit, Annie and the children found temporary shelter in one of the army-issue tents and continued to have their meals at the hotel. Alfie quickly telegraphed back that he was relieved Annie and the children were fine, and that he was anxiously awaiting their arrival.

  Meanwhile, the tent was not such a hardship. The high temperatures and humidity were gradually replaced by warm summer weather and she enjoyed the company of other adults. The boys treated the experience like a holiday and found other children to play with during the day. In the evening, though, Annie’s three older sons suffered nightmares that made them shudder and cry in their sleep.

  Whenever Jim was off duty, he walked to town to spend a few hours with them. One day inside her tent, he confided to Annie, “This assignment must be worse than fighting on the Western Front. It’s unpleasant work, gathering bodies. We found the remains of sixteen people who’d a
ll suffocated in their root cellars. Yesterday, we found four families beside the river, all dead. Some were so badly burned that only fragments of their bodies could be found. What’s even more difficult is that I know the families of the homesteads and farms where we found all those remains.”

  “My God, I can’t imagine how much they suffered before they died,” said Annie with a shudder. She couldn’t understand why she was still alive when so many people hadn’t made it. Sometimes she felt euphoric that she and the children had escaped death, but mostly she felt incredibly sad because so many lives were lost. “It’s been so hard on our boys, too. They’ve witnessed terrible sights. I worry whether their nightmares will ever stop haunting them.”

  Jim pulled her to him and whispered, “Children bounce back, you’ll see. I’m just grateful that you’re alive. I’m so sorry that you had to face that bushfire alone.” He told her that he regretted signing up, but there was nothing he could do to reverse it. If he deserted, he said he’d end up in jail, of no use to anyone. At least Annie would get a steady separation allowance while he was away. But still, her first choice would be to have him with her.

  Two days later, Jim came to Annie’s tent, looking shaken. He glanced around to make sure the boys were not within hearing distance, and told her in a broken voice, that the local French-Canadian settlement had tragically lost every one of its adults in the fire.

  “They put their children in a rescue train, but stayed behind to try to save their homes. As the fire came closer, it seems their young priest led the fifty-six men and women to a clay-cut in a field, apparently believing that they would be sheltered. We found them all kneeling, but dead. The agonized expressions on some of their faces will be branded into my mind forever. Jesus, what a terrible sight! I’m so blessed that you and our boys were spared.”