Barrels of nails melted into one mass, and in the yards of the Eastern Minnesota Railroad, the wheels of the cars fused with the rails.

Others clambered aboard two crowded trains that pulled out of the threatened town minutes ahead of the fire.

To add to the problem, the temperature inversion that day added to the heat, smoke and gases being held down by the huge layer of cool air above.

[8]The fire destroyed the town of Hinckley (which at the time had a population of over 1,400) as well as the smaller nearby settlements of Mission Creek, Pokegama, Sandstone, Miller, and Partridge.

[2][9] An unknown number of Native Americans and backcountry dwellers were also killed in the fire; bodies continued to be found years later.

Today, a 37-mile (60 km) section of the Willard Munger State Trail, from Hinckley to Barnum, is a memorial to the fire and the devastation it caused.

His last known residence is believed to have been a forest settlement near Hinckley, and a "Thomas Corbett" is listed as one of the dead or missing.