Fire, Friend and Enemy 



PROGRESS, BUT STILL A PROBLEM 



A. A. BROWN 



IN 1947, in all parts of the United 

 States, 200,799 forest fires burned 

 over 23,226,000 acres an area the size 

 of Indiana and caused tangible dam- 

 age amounting to more than 55 million 

 dollars to timber, farm homes, barns, 

 towns, schoolhouses, places where men 

 and women make their living and chil- 

 dren have their being. 



The damage to young tree growth, 

 soil, watersheds, recreation areas, and 

 wildlife cannot be converted readily 

 into dollars, but it could easily add an 

 equal amount to the loss we suffered 

 from wild-land fires in just one year. 

 Besides that, the work of controlling the 

 fires to keep the damage from amount- 

 ing to a more disastrous total cost land- 

 owners and taxpayers nearly 35 million 

 dollars. 



The record for 1947 is enough to 

 show that fire on our wild lands is a big 

 and important problem. Yet for the 

 country as a whole the 1947 record was 

 not unusual; in many past years it has 

 been much worse. 



The drawing above, based on photographs, 

 shows one terrifying aspect of forest fires. 



Forest fires remain a problem despite 

 the great progress in dealing with 

 them. It is a complex problem, because 

 man-caused fires result from people's 

 activities and habits: The man from 

 the city, for instance, does not easily 

 change his smoking habits when he 

 goes into the woods. So, changing 

 people's smoking habits becomes a part 

 of the task. 



It is complex, too, because the in- 

 flammability of forest fuels varies with 

 weather and seasons from conditions 

 where it takes great skill to get a camp- 

 fire to burn, to conditions where a 

 single spark explodes, as in a powder 

 keg. So, prediction of fire danger and 

 understanding of weather and forest 

 fuel has become a part of forest fire- 

 control activity. 



It is complex because the value of 

 our public forests depends on public 

 use; as the desirable uses increase, the 

 liability from fires generally increases. 

 So, skillful regulation of public use also 

 becomes a fire job. 



It is particularly complex because 

 successful fire fighting calls for quick 



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