Four Hours September 1, 1894. Pine County, Minnesota. A wall of fire 4.5 miles high consumed six towns. Temperatures hit 2,000°F. Engineer James Root threw his train into reverse, blind from burns, and ran it backward five miles to Skunk Lake. Around 300 passengers survived by lying in the water. Hinckley itself was gone.
Source
Minnesota Historical Society, Daniel J. Brown, 'Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894', 2006
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