Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894.(Brief article)(Book review)

Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 DANIEL JAMES BROWN. Lyons, $22.95 (240p) ISBN 1-59228-863-4

On September 1, 1894, Hinckley, Minn.--a thriving town with a population of more than 1,200, two railroads, a successful lumber mill and five hotels--was ravaged by a firestorm that grew out of a catastrophic convergence of two ordinary fires, high winds, hot weather and white pine forest. Brown, a textbook writer, gives a human face to natural calamity as he draws on firsthand survivor stories, such as those of his grandfather, who at nine was rescued from the disaster that killed his father, a Norwegian immigrant. A wide range …