498 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



Such forecasts cover three of the 

 eight factors that are used in rating 

 fire danger, plus lightning, which is 

 the primary fire starter in the West, 

 and the likelihood of rain, which is the 

 best fire extinguisher everywhere. Of 

 the other factors, condition of vegeta- 

 tion is determined by observation and 

 the amount of rain and number of days 

 since the last rain from local records. 

 It is rare that a fire watcher is so iso- 

 lated as to be ignorant of the date. This 

 leaves only fuel moisture to be pre- 

 dicted, and it can be estimated with 



sufficient accuracy by consideration 

 of today's fuel moisture, tomorrow's 

 weather forecast, and correlations that 

 have been developed between the two. 

 Tomorrow's fire danger can then be 

 computed by any fire-danger meter. 



G. LLOYD HAYES is leader of the 

 Cascade-Siskiyou Research Center, 

 Forest Service, at Roseburg, Oreg. He 

 was graduated from the University of 

 Idaho in 1934, and took graduate work 

 in forestry at Yale University and the 

 University of California. 



THE FIRE ON CEDAR CREEK 



FRANK J. JEFFERSON 



(Except for the names, this is a true 

 account of how a forest fire started 

 and was stopped. It is the composite 

 of the experiences of a man who has 

 fought fires in the West for 38 years. 

 He changed the names of places and 

 men so that he could bring in details 

 and facts that happened at one place 

 or another, although all of them did 

 not occur at any one place at one 

 time. ) 



The telephone at the Red River 

 ranger station rang urgently early one 

 Saturday afternoon in August. Hurry 

 Earle, the district fire dispatcher, took 

 a message from Guy Roberts, the for- 

 est ranger at the Snag Flat fire camp. 



Roberts reported: 



"Fire caught by bad whirlwind. 

 More sparks and hot embers from 

 burning snags scattered across Red 

 River than patrolmen can put out. 

 New fire headed up ridges both sides 

 Cedar Creek. Fire on east ridge climb- 

 ing fast in grass. Rate about mile an 

 hour. Spreading up ridge and to east 

 slope. Will hit timber about mile up 

 ridge. On west side, fire moving up 

 ridge slower. Ridge rocky with scat- 

 tered fuel but bad brush field just 

 ahead of fire. Six patrolmen on north 

 side of river trying to prevent east and 



west sides of fire spreading farther up 

 or down river. No more men can be 

 spared from Snag Flat without taking 

 chance of losing it and having a bad 

 fire on both sides Red River. 



"Call Swanson's 40-man logging 

 crew with bulldozer. Have them start 

 right away for mouth of Cedar Creek. 

 Start full Rock Creek road crew of 

 25 men and 2 bulldozers for same 

 point. Also Strawberry Flat 4-man 

 tanker crew. Establish camp on road at 

 mouth Cedar Creek. Send in 100-man 

 camp outfit, including 2 backfiring out- 

 fits. Phone forest supervisor's office ad- 

 vising him of the situation and action 

 taken. Make clear to him all fire-con- 

 trol resources of this district now called 

 into action. Ask him to arrange for 

 additional help as he believes needed. 

 Tell him will use logging and road 

 crews to try and keep fire from crossing 

 either Ant Creek or Fly Creek. Wind 

 southwest. Humidity is 8. Goodbye, 

 Hurry but hurry!" 



Thus was control work on the Cedar 

 Creek fire started. 



The forest supervisor, who had taken 

 over for his central dispatcher during 

 the lunch hour, in turn received the 

 call from the local Red River dis- 

 patcher. Fire-weather forecasts had 

 been critical for several days. Years of 



