366 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Including the losses on private lands within the National Forests, the 

 total timberetl area burned over was 3,805,572 acres, and the total 

 estimated loss was 826,597,228, as against $456,246 in 1909. This 

 shows tlie losses of the two years in a ratio of more than 50 to 1. 



The total cost of fighting these lircs, exclusive of the time of forest 

 officers, was $1,037,254.03, as against $54,669.83 in 1909. An aver- 

 age of 25.87 acres per thousand acres was burned over, as against an 

 average of 1.86 acres the previous year. The total nundjer of fires 

 reported was 5,201, of which 3,164 were confined to an area of 5 acres 

 or less. Of these fires 1,704, or 32.76 per cent, were caused by railroad 

 locomotives; 724, or 13.92 per cent, by lightning; an(l 668, or 13.23 

 per cent, by campers. Incendiarism and brush burning were each 

 responsible for a little less than 6 per cent of the fires; sawmills and 

 donkey engines, for a little less than 1 per cent; and other causes, 

 classed as miscellaneous, for 4.63 per cent. Finally, 1,184 fires, or 

 22.77 per cent of the total, were due to unknown causes. 



The percentage due to lightning was unusually high. The exposure 

 of forests to fires caused by hghtning is the result of climatic con- 

 ditions peculiar to the West, and is most serious in the high mountains. 

 In other parts of the United States a thunderstorm brings with the 

 hghtning an antidote for fire, in the rainfall which accompanies an 

 electrical storm. Many of the western storms, however, are char- 

 acterized by violent lightning with little rain, and lightning often 

 strikes where there is no rain at all. If the woods are unusually dry, 

 the number of fires set will be correspondingly increased. Inasmuch 

 as the regions most exposed to this danger are those which it is most 

 difficult to protect because of their remoteness and the absence of 

 means of communication, the danger of fires caused by lightning must 

 always remain formidable while large parts of the Forests remain in 

 an undeveloped state. 



It is necessary to report, mth deep regret, that a heavy loss of life 

 took place in the fight against the fires of the calendar year 1910. 

 That the losses were not much greater is due to the coolness, wood- 

 craft, and devotion to duty of the forest officers, usually rangers, 

 who brought their men through safely, even at imminent risk to 

 themselves. The work of some of these forest officers may fairly be 

 called heroic. 



The names of the temporary employees of the Forest Service whose 

 lives were lost, so far as they are known, appear in the list given on 

 page 27. No forest ranger or other officer in the regular employ of 

 the Forest Service lost his life, though several were badly injured. 



