Questions and Answers 



maintenance of right-of-ways or con- 

 struction or operation of railroads. 



What is considered the worst forest 

 fire in American history? 



The Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin in 

 October 1871 when 1,280,000 acres 

 were burned over; homes, towns, and 

 settlements were swept away, and 1,500 

 persons perished. 



What are the different types of 

 forest fires? 



Crown a fire that burns through 

 the tops of trees, brush, chaparral, or 

 that consumes all or a large part of the 

 upper branches or foliage; ground a 

 fire confined to the materials compos- 

 ing the forest floor or beneath the sur- 

 face, as in peat beds; surface a fire 

 that runs over the forest floor and burns 

 only the surface litter, the loose debris, 

 and the smaller vegetation or ground 

 cover. 



What are the different parts of a 

 forest fire? 



The fingers these are the long, nar- 

 row tongues of a fire that project from 

 the main body; the flanks the parts of 

 the edge of a fire between the head and 

 the rear; the head the part of the 

 edge of a fire on which rate of spread 

 is most rapid; the rear the part of 

 the edge of a fire on the windward or 

 downhill side. 



What section has the greatest un- 

 protected area of forest land? 

 ^ The South. In 1947, 11 Southern 

 States had organized protection against 

 fire on 92 million acres of private for- 

 est land ; 82 million acres were without 

 such protection. 



What are the principal causes of 

 forest fires in the different sections? 



In the Lake States and New Eng- 

 land, fires are mostly man-caused ; care- 

 less smokers head the list. In the East- 

 ern and Southern States, also, they are 

 mostly man-caused ; careless brush and 

 field burners and (in the South) in- 

 tentional fire setters head the list. In 



the Rocky Mountain area, more than 

 70 percent are started by lightning; 

 the others result from carelessness 

 while smoking. In the Northwest, 

 about half the fires start with light- 

 ning; careless smokers and campers 

 (who abandon campfires) are serious 

 offenders. In California, lightning 

 starts about 23 percent, careless smok- 

 ers and campers most of the others. 



When is the danger of forest fires 

 greatest? 



Generally speaking, the worst fire 

 seasons in the eastern half of the coun- 

 try are in the spring and fall; in the 

 West, late summer. But at no time of 

 the year is every section of the United 

 States completely free of the danger. 



How does one fight a forest fire? 



The ^ first essential is to deprive the 

 fire of its fuel by making a fire line or 

 barrier down to mineral soil, all around 

 the fire. After one has stopped the fire 

 from spreading, he then extinguishes 

 all the burning material within the fire 

 area. This applies to all small forest 

 or woods fires. For a small grass fire, 

 the first action is to beat out the flames 

 if possible. One should not try to put 

 out a big fire alone. 



What is a smokejumper? 

 ^ He is a parachute fire fighter, espe- 

 cially trained and equipped to drop to 

 forest fires in remote forest areas and 

 put the fires out while they are still 

 small. 



Are there many smokejumpers? 



The Forest Service employs more 

 than 200 smokejumpers to help control 

 fires in the roadless national forest 

 areas of Idaho, Montana, Washington, 

 Oregon, and California. This type of 

 fire fighting is being extended to other 

 States as well. Canada recently organ- 

 ized a smokejumper group in British 

 Columbia. 



Are smokejumpers effective? 

 Yes. They reduce forest fire losses. 

 In 2 hours they can reach fires in road- 



