James Edward Kerr

James Kerr was among the 78 firefighters who lost their lives in the Great 1910 Fire. He was trapped at Setzer Creek, near Avery, Idaho, with others. Firefighters caught in the fires that merged that August tried to protect themselves in mines, soaking themselves in creeks, and also some backtracked to previously burned areas.

Winds as high as 80 miles per hour made the 1910 fire become a 4,500+ square mile firestorm like no other since. Eight civilians also lost their lives.

There is a monument to all firefighters near the mineshaft up the road to Moon Pass, Shoshone County, Idaho, where US Forest Service Ranger, Pulaski, held 48 members of the fire crew at gunpoint to keep them from panicing and running out into the flames. The men in the mine were the only surviving firefighters of this immense fire. A photo of the monument can be viewed at: http://www.wildlandfire.com/pics/memor/memorial1910.jpg

A total of 58 of the firefighters are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in St. Maries, 8 of their names unknown because the fire crew chiefs had gathered men in such haste that names were missed in recruiting. Some of the other firefighters are buried at Nine Mile Cemetery, near Wallace, Idaho in Shoshone County.

Bibliography:

1.The Big Burn of 1910 - A Missoulian Special Section - Mountains of Fire - by Sherry Devlin, Published 2000 by Missoulian, A Lee Enterprise Publication,accessed 7/27/2006, http://www.missoulian.com/specials/1910/mountains/html;
2.AOL.Hometown - Wallace, Idaho - accessed 7/25/2006 - http://hometown.aol/Gibson0817/wallace.htm;
3.USDA Forest Service - Northern Region Forest Service - Centennial: Historic Fire Tower Lookouts & Cabin Rentals;
4.Idaho Forest Fire Stories 1910 - accessed 7/25/2006 -
www.idahoforests.org/fires2.htm;
5.The Online Encyclopediea of Washington State History - Timeline Library - accessed 7/26/2006 - www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5488;
6.Book, "Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910" by Stephen J. Pyne, published 2001,2002 by Penguin Books;
7.Woodlawn Cemetery, Saint Maries, Benewah County, Idaho - Internment.Net Cemetery Transcripton Library - submitted by Maggie Rail - [email%C2%A0protected] - published/copyright 1997-2006 - accessed 7/23-7/27/2006 - www.internment.net/data/us/id/benewah/woodlawn/misc.htm* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 24 2024, 3:55:36 UTC