Fire Attack!

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“I saw a thrilling and awful sight on September 2^nd. At a small village named Mimaxe about 4 miles down the river towards the White Sea, the Bolsheviks at a narrow part of the river had set fire to the huge piles of dry, stacked logs. There must have been hundreds of thousands of logs, and the heat from these blazing piles was terrific. The buildings were ablaze too, and all the great saw-mills for miles were gutted. It was a tremendous blaze. The roar of the flames could be heard a long distance off. Of course no boats could get up or down the river. The Bolos had purposely chosen this narrow part of the river in order to prevent British ships from leaving Archangel. I began to wonder if I would ever get home. At night the whole sky was lit up. British and Russian tugs were hastened to the scene of the fire, and had it under control in a remarkably short space of time. They played water on the blazing logs from the river.”

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