WHY AND HOW SOME FOREST FIRES OCCUR 



1355 



cases it has required from three to six days for fire 

 fighters to reach a fire from the nearest railway point. 

 And when it is remembered that equipment and supphes 

 for the men must be transported on pack horses over 

 rough mountain trails and kept on the line at all times, 

 the difficulties of the situation will be appreciated. Under 

 these conditions it can be understood readily how light- 

 ning-set fires in these remote places become raging con- 

 flagrations before the fight against them can be begun. 



"In spite of the difficulties handicapping the fire organi- 

 zation, District i has made a remarkable record for 

 efficiency, even though a very large acreage in the aggre- 

 gate has been burned over and many bad fires are still 

 burning. 



"Commonly fires due to preventable causes are near 

 lines of transportation and communication and can be 

 discovered and suppressed before they assume serious 

 proportions, but the reverse is true where lightning fires 

 occur. Not infrequently in the most inaccessible moun- 

 tainous regions ten, fifteen, or twenty fires are started 

 within a few minutes by a single electrical disturbance. 

 Sometimes these blazes are scattered over quite a large 

 extent of territory, often they are close together and 

 before it is possible to start the fight against them they 

 coalesce and form one big fire which, if the wind is 

 blowing freshly, soon reaches the tops of the trees and 

 develops into a crown fire that defies human efforts to 

 combat it so long as the wind continues." 



The area of fires was as follows : One-quarter acre 

 or less, 427; one-quarter to 10 acres, 295; over 10 acres, 

 187, a total of 909, while the total acreage burned was 

 201,014 acres. 



The causes of fires were as follows: Railroads, 179; 

 campers, 131 ; brush burning, 96; lumbering, 9; lightning, 

 240; incendiary, 27; miscellaneous, 8; unknown, 219. 



"The great majority of these fires have been put out 

 or are now definitely under control and no longer dan- 

 gerous although still being watched. At the close of 

 July 30, there were not more than 25 fires running un- 

 controlled, mostly in the mountains of Idaho. On that 

 date approximately 3,500 fire fighters were on the line, 

 this, of course, not including the force of rangers, guards, 

 lookout men, smoke chasers, and other regularly em- 

 ployed forest officers, numbering about 1,500 men. 



"Detailed reports on file from the several national 

 forests of the district cover the situation only up to the 

 close of July 30. During the night of July 31, over 

 fifty fires were started by one severe electrical storm 

 that ran alonjj the westerly slopes of the Bitter Root 

 Mountains in Idaho forests. These fires have been mere- 

 ly reported by wire, their extent or precise locations not 

 yet having been determined by the field officers. They 

 were scattered over a territory embracing roughly 4,000 

 square miles. Does this single night's experience convey 

 an idea of what the Forest Service fire organization in 

 District i is contending with ?" 



F. C. Wilfong and his crew met with a most trying 

 experience during the Selway fire on Crooked Creek on 

 July 24. They were trapped at a point where three 

 fires met, and their camp with provisions, clothes, etc., 



was burned. The party saved themselves only by lying 

 in the Selway River for 35 minutes with wet blankets 

 over their heads. Their train of thirteen pack horses 

 was caught in the track of the fire, but they had been 

 taken to a bunch grass hill, and only one horse was lost. 

 The pack saddles were burned from the backs of the 

 other horses. 



Mr. Wilfong says of his experience: "There was no 

 way out of it, we were cornered and we plunged into the 

 water, keeping our faces above the surface. We put 

 wet blankets over our heads for the heat was so intense 

 that our flesh would have been burned if we had not 

 taken that precaution. The roar of the flames was 

 tremendous but we were comparatively safe. 



"Once I raised the blanket a little to peek and see how 

 the fire was going and what do you think I saw? There 

 was a big bear perched on a rock right at my feet and 

 looking over at me like he was ready to jump. I guess 

 he thought I was a rock. We exchanged glances for a 

 while and I am willing to bet that he wasn't any more 

 scared than I was, but as soon as he recovered from the 

 surprise, he turned tail and away he went. It was the 

 last I saw of him." 



CONSERVATIOi>J OF PAPER 



T^ CONOMY in the use of paper will release vast quan- 

 ^ titles of chemicals which are urgently needed. 



A pound of paper wasted means from 1 to 3 pounds of 

 coal wasted. 



Cutting down the use of paper 25 per cent would mean 

 6,000,000 tons less freight for the railroads to haul and 

 would at the same time save 2,500,000 tons of coal. 



Old magazines, books, stationery, etc., are used in 

 making books, writing, and other forms of paper. 



Paper that comes around purchases at the store is 

 made over again into new paper, cardboard, cartons, 

 paper boxes, paper bags, etc. 



One hundred pounds of soft white paper shavings will 

 make 90 pounds of new paper. 



One hundred pounds of old magazine paper will make 

 80 pounds of new paper. 



One and one-half million tons of book and writing 

 paper were made last year from old paper. 



One hundred pounds of old folded newspapers will 

 make 85 pounds of new paper box board. 



Two and one-half million tons of various kinds of 

 paper box board were made last year from old papers. 



One hundred pounds of old cotton rags will make from 

 65 to 75 pounds of paper pulp ; this pulp will make only 

 2 per cent less than an equal amount of paper. 



One hundred pounds of new cotton rags will make 80 

 pounds of paper pulp. 



One hundred pounds of old collars, cuffs, pillowcases, 

 or sheets will make 80 pounds of new paper. 



Woolen rags are converted into shoddy and shoddy 

 converted into wool. The shrinkage from shoddy to 

 wool is the same as from raw wool to finished wool, 

 namely, about 3 per cent. 



One hundred pounds of wool saved or reclaimed pro- 

 vides sufficient material for 25 suits of clothes. 



