FOREST FIRES IN WASHINGTON AND 



OREGON 



By C, S, CHAPMAN 

 District Forester, District 5, U, S. Forest Service 



THE summer of 1910 was conspic- 

 uous by lack of rainfall. Early 

 in the spring the snow left the 

 mountains of eastern Oregon and 

 Washington, where it usually lies until 

 much later, and those who could read 

 the signs predicted a dry summer. 

 From the middle of June until the mid- 

 dle of September, a period of nearly 

 ninety days, there was practically no 

 rain. The result of this drought was 

 that in early August the woods were as 

 dry as they usually are in late Sep- 

 tember, with no immediate prospects of 

 rain. 



East of the mountains the grass was 

 dry and parched, and a match or cigar- 

 ette stub thrown into it easily started 

 a serious fire. On the west side slash- 

 ings became tinder-like and a spark 

 from a donkey or locomotive was all 

 that was needed to start a fire which 

 in an hour would require twenty men 

 to extinguish. The dense forest of the 

 West Slope does not ordinarily burn 

 easily. The dense shade protecting 

 the underbrush from the direct rays 

 of the sun causes it to stay green and 

 so serve, in no small measure, to pre- 

 vent the starting of fires in the ordi- 

 nary way. But a fire starting in a dry 

 slashing, with an enormous amount of 

 fuel in tops, limbs, and defective and 

 broken trees strewn over the ground 

 to feed upon, will sweep into a stand 

 of green timber, kill and dry out the 

 dense green underbrush beneath the 

 stand, and thus make more fuel for 

 fires which often go into the tops and 

 are then beyond control. The great- 

 est menace to standing timber on the 

 West Coast is the old slashings. Sec- 

 ond to this is the campers and hunters, 

 644 



who not infrequently build fires against 

 defective logs and then fail to put them 

 out. Such fires can gather sufficient 

 energy to dry out the green underbrush 

 and start dangerous conflagrations. 



The patrols of the Forest Service 

 and private owners kept the fires well 

 in hand until the middle of July. On 

 the Oregon National Forest a fire 

 started in the Santian country on July 

 19. This was the first of the bad 

 fires, for although it destroyed little 

 government timber and was soon un- 

 der control, it caused loss of life. Three 

 men in the employ of the Hoover 

 Lumber Company in trying to recover 

 their tools which were in the path of 

 the fire were overtaken by it and killed. 

 Later the Hoover Mill burned and set 

 fire to surrounding timber. During the 

 latter part of June and during July 

 the forests were getting in serious con- 

 dition and both the government and 

 private timber owners w^ere taking ex- 

 tra precautions to prevent the possi- 

 bility of disastrous fires, starting. In 

 spite of this, however. Supervisor Reid 

 of the Colville National Forest early in 

 July reported fires on his forests. By 

 July 29 he reported thirteen fires burn- 

 ing and more starting every day. All 

 available help was secured and the Na- 

 tional Forest officers were tireless in 

 their endeavor to handle the situation. 

 Fires threatened on the north across 

 the Canadian border and on the south 

 from the Colville Indian Reservation. 

 On August II the Forester was wired 

 for troops as the situation was growing 

 more serious and not enough experi- 

 enced men could be had to handle the 

 crews of green men, the only men avail- 

 able, brought in to fight the fire. Two 



