FOREST FIRES OF 191 1. 



The forest fire season of 191 1 was the worst the state has 

 experienced in many years, differing in many respects from the 

 season of 1908, when the fire season extended from April until 

 November, with heavy losses in both the spring and fall months. 

 In 191 1 the burden of the work and the larger extent of the 

 damage was crowded into a few weeks principally the month 

 of July, the most disastrous of the forest fires breaking out 

 July 3 and 4. 



The spring months passed with a considerable diminishing in 

 the average rain fall, which Maine experienced together with 

 all New England, leaving the slash and litter of the woods to 

 quickly dry. Before the green growth was well started, and 

 that was later than usual, numerous forest fires were reported 

 trom various sections of the state. Fortunately the early fires 

 did but little damage to the green and mature timber, the path 

 of the fire in most cases following cut over lands and the 

 smaller growth. It was the later fires that did the damage. 



An unusual number of fires in 191 1 were caused by lightning, 

 that cause being definitely stated in the reports of some of the 

 forest fires doing the greatest amount of damage. From 

 records of Maine forest fires it appears that 35 were set by 

 lightning during the season. That this is considerably above the 

 average is borne out by the fact that the number of forest fires 

 credited to lightning in 1908. a year of many large fires, was 

 only five. For the years of 1909 and 1910, only one forest fire 

 in each year was caused by lightning. This peculiar feature of 

 the fire season of 191 1 coupled with the extreme hot weather 

 created a condition against which it was hard to combat. 



Many of the fires were stubborn and hard to subdue and not 

 having men enough in the vicinity of the fires crews had to be 

 recruited from long distances. This added to the general ex- 

 penses and the many fires quickly depleted the funds of the 



