WON FOREST FIRE FIGHT 



y^s:;^HE story of a strenuous and 

 C/J stubborn fight against a forest fire 

 ^^^ which raged over 34,000 acres 

 and did damage to the extent of about 

 $30,000 is that brought back from the 

 Sitgreaves National forest of Arizona, 

 in the Third district, by Assistant Dis- 

 trict Forester F. C. Pooler. It is a 

 story which includes an eighty-mile gal- 

 lop from Snowflake, Arizona, by a 

 dozen rangers in twenty-four hours 

 over rough country, a night and day 

 struggle amid sizzling heat and acrid, 

 blinding smoke to drive back fierce 

 flames which, driven by high winds, 

 often leaped hundreds of feet at a 

 time. As high as forty men, including 

 assistants from ranches and cow camps, 

 were engaged for many days trying to 

 head ofl: the fire, and the entire ex- 

 pense to the service in extinguishing 

 the blaze was about $1,700. 



Putting out the fire, which had a cir- 

 cumference of some thirty miles, was 

 made the more difficult by the fact that 

 the scarcity of rain had made things 

 extremely dry and that the sheep had 

 not yet been brought in to this district 

 the Chevalon district, of the forest for 

 their grazing; and because only from 

 fifteen to eighteen ranchers reside in 

 the whole district. 



The fire was started by lightning and 

 because of the sparsely settled nature 

 of the country would have swept an 

 enormous area but for the forest serv- 

 ice organization and the fact that sev- 

 enty miles of telephone line have been 

 installed in this region by the govern- 

 ment in the past year. 



The Sitgreaves forest is 893,720 

 acres in extent and the density of the 

 timber is indicated by the fact that half 

 a million dollars worth stood on the 

 burned area, the total loss being com- 

 paratively small in proportion to the 

 aggregate of standing timber. A few 

 cattlemen joined the forest service em- 

 ployes in the fight, although it is said 



one large outfit that could have fur- 

 nished a dozen men failed to do so. ; 



Delay in reporting the fire resulted : 

 from a curious incident. The lookout , 

 who climbed with his spiked climbers \ 

 to the top of a 110-foot tree to take his ; 

 daily reconnaisance saw and reported a | 

 fire on the Coconino forest, adjoining, 1 

 on June 7. Directly in line with this ; 

 fire was the smoke from the incipient ■ 

 conflagration on the Sitgreaves, which : 

 smoke appeared to be a part of that] 

 from the Coconino and it was not until : 

 the next day, June 8, that the lookout 

 telephoned in the report of his own fire ; 

 which by that time was well under I 

 way. I 



The first report came in to the' 

 ranger station at 8 p. m. and next morn- 

 ing at 1 o'clock a force of fire-fighters' 

 was on the scene, the aid of a few local i 

 residents being secured. June 10, after, 

 the rangers had been fighting desper-i 

 ately night and day to head off the! 

 blaze, a call for help was sent in to ' 

 Snowflake and Supervisor Jennings, of ; 

 the Sitgreaves, with Mr. Pooler and aj 

 dozen rangers, hastily saddled up and ; 

 "hit the trail" — and a very rough trail i 

 at that — for the fire, making the eighty j 

 miles in twenty-four hours, arriving atj 

 4 in the evening, eating a hasty lunch, i 

 starting to work and eating nothing un-. 

 til well into the next day. All thati 

 night, all the next day and all the next; 

 nisfht the little force worked without; 

 rest. The fire was burning on about, 

 5,500 acres when the officials arrived. '. 



The fire would apparently be checked j 

 when at noon every day a high windi 

 would spring up and by 3 o'clock thei 

 heat would be so intense that the fire-| 

 fighters could not approach it, blazing, 

 bark being hurled five hundred feet be- '■ 

 fore the wind to start a hundred new, 

 fires ahead of the main front. Finally; 

 a fire line a quarter to half a milej 

 wide was run from Leonard canyon ' 

 to Willow creek, which checked the ad- 



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