FIGHTING A FOREST FIRE 

 Running a Fire Line around a Dangerous Blaze on a Montana National Forest 



Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have 

 either been destroyed or so seriously 

 threatened that the inhabitants fled for 

 their lives. 



These fires east of the Mississippi 

 River have raged almost unchecked for 

 .weeks. Drought conditions existing 

 over the entire country have helped the 

 progress of the flames ; while the un- 

 organized, unsystematic, and somewhat 

 aimless efforts to extinguish the fires 

 have been well-nigh fruitless. The 

 lack of precaution in preventing fires 

 getting out ; the inability to apprehend, 

 and the disinclination to prosecute of- 

 fenders against public safety, have 

 helped to increase the destruction of 

 the woods. 



Conditions are different in the West, 

 and particularly in the government for- 

 ests. Fires have broken out during 

 the past summer in national forests 

 from the Canadian line to Arizona ; 

 from Colorado to California. In one of 

 the western national forests the super- 

 visor reported a short time ago 

 that at one time fourteen fires were 

 burning. Another supervisor reported 

 twelve fires at one time in the forest 

 under his charge. Fire fighting is a 

 part of the business out there, however, 

 and none of these fires attained any 



really serious proportions or did any 

 great amount of damage. In most 

 cases the fires were extinguished within 

 twenty-four hours after they were dis- 

 covered ; while in no case reported were 

 the fires burning longer than forty- 

 eight hours after they started. Forest 

 guards, rangers, and other national for- 

 est officers make the fighting of fires a 

 part of their regular employment dur- 

 ing the summer months. Fire patrols 

 are constantly on the alert to discover 

 blazes just starting, while conspicuous 

 notices are posted all over national for- 

 ests warning against the danger of fire 

 and setting forth the Forest Service 

 rules in the premises. Out there, when 

 a fire starts it is speedily extinguished 

 with the minimum of damage ; east of 

 the Mississippi River, where there are 

 no national forests, the fires rage prac- 

 tically unchecked for weeks, destroy- 

 ing timber and other property at the 

 rate of $1,000,000 per day! If there 

 were no argument but this in favor of 

 the speedy establishment of the Appa- 

 lachian and White Mountain national 

 forests, under Forest Service admin- 

 istration, it would seem to the casual 

 observer that those forests should be 

 established at once, and not only those 

 forests but others in the Adirondacks, 



557 



