SMALL FIRE LOSS 



THE fire season in Oregon prac- 

 tically ended with the arrival 

 of general rains which started 

 September 6th. The year will 

 be long remembered as one of the 

 driest ever experienced in the State. 

 For a period of seventy-four days no 

 rain fell and the forest fire situation of 

 necessity became extremely critical. 

 Since Weather Bureau records have 

 been kept in the state (43 years) the 

 longest period of drought recorded 

 prior to 1914 was fifty-seven days. In 

 spite of the long dry period, however, 

 the Oregon Forest Fire Association re- 

 ports very slight loss of green timber 

 through fire. 



A general rain commencing Septem- 

 ber 6 and continuing for several days, 

 ended the longest period of drought 

 experienced in Oregon during the past 

 fifty years. The fire hazard was fur- 

 ther increased by the fact that during 

 the past winter the snowfall in the 

 mountains was extremely light and dis- 

 appeared fully six weeks earlier than 

 usual. 



The conditions during the fire sea- 

 son, therefore, were such as to test out 

 choroughly the patrol organizations 

 built up during the last four years, and 

 the results have been more than satis- 

 factory. Data sufiicient to compile defi- 

 nite figures is not yet available at the 

 State Forester's office, but it is certain 

 that at least 1,200 fires occurred dur- 

 ing the season, which is more than 

 the combined total of the previous three 

 seasons. Most of these fires originated 

 in old burns and logged areas and due 

 to the efficiency of the Federal, asso- 

 ciation and State patrolmen practically 

 all of them were stopped before green 

 timber was damaged. Owing to the 

 extreme dryness, fires were controlled 

 with great difficulty, and more money 

 was spent for this purpose than in any 

 season since 1910. 



The patrol force on privately owned 

 land showed an increase of about 100 



706 



men over that of last year. This was, 

 in part, due to the Congressional ap- 

 propriation of $25,000 for the patrol ot 

 the Oregon and California Railroad 

 grant lands, which made it possible to 

 place 46 patrolmen in the field. 



Early in August patrols were mate- 

 rially increased, until some 400 State, 

 Weeks Law and privately employed 

 wardens were guarding privately- 

 jwned timber. 



Fires were numerous, but only in a 

 few cases did they reach any consider- 

 able size. The dense smoke resulting 

 from the fires was, however, no incon- 

 siderable handicap to lookout men and 

 wardens generally, as it made prompt 

 detection of fires difficult. 



At the present time reports are not 

 available to show the exact damage re- 

 sulting from forest fires, but it is known 

 to be inconsiderable. 



Since 1914 has been the driest sum- 

 mer ever recorded in Oregon, it is the 

 opinion of timber owners generally 

 that it has now been demonstrated that 

 adequate patrol can keep fire from do- 

 ing damage and makes stumpage an 

 entirely safe investment. 



Washington had over 100 fires dur- 

 ing August. Some logs have been 

 burned but very little damage to settlers 

 has resulted, and only a small amount 

 of green timber has been damaged. The 

 chief danger until rains come is high 

 winds. Fires started during the sea- 

 son are being carefully guarded, but 

 unusually bad conditions might result 

 in their breaking out and causing dam- 

 age as well as heavy expense to fighc 

 them. Over 200 regular. Association 

 and State wardens, are on duty. No 

 rain fell in July or August and the 

 woods were extremely dry. 



Idaho associations have had unusu- 

 ally bad and expensive fires to contend 

 with. Prompt action and the employ- 

 ment of a large number of fire fight- 

 ers has, however, prevented great loss 

 of green timber. Not less than 200 fires 

 were handled during August, the bulk 



