FIGHTING FIRE IN WATERFORD
Thousands of Acres of Cedar Swamps Ablaze
Cranberry Bogs Destroyed
A Gallop for Life.

WATERFORD, N. J., Sept. 15.— A terrific fire is destroying thousands of acres of cedar swamps near here to-night. This is the fire that has been burning in the Jackson meadows for the past two weeks, and which has destroyed at least $60,000 worth of property.

A forty-mile-an-hour wind this morning drove the fire into the big cedar swamps and toward the Burnt Hill cranberry bog, a mile from here. Residents, with a big gang of Italians, drove out in wagons and are still fighting the flames.

By back-firing from the Atco branch of the Jersey Central Railroad they saved the Collings cranberry bogs, but the fire Is now stretched in the big swamp from Jackson to Atsion, a distance of ten miles.

The teams with which the fire fighters drove to the scene came near being burned just before noon, and it was only by galloping through the suffocating smoke that they were saved. Cinders from the fire fell in Cedar Brook, several miles away.

It was learned to-night that the house and outbuildings of Isaac Hertford’s place were destroyed, and one Italian from this place has been missing since 5 o’clock.

E. Z. Collings, an extensive cranberry grower, is here with a big gang, trying to save his bogs. Food is being conveyed In wagons to the exhausted men, who have been fighting all day.

Published in the NY Times, Sept. 16, 1895