The Fire on Cedar 



505 



fire edge on a long section at the upper 

 end. That line was done; only three 

 men were needed to hold it. The dozer 

 and the rest of the crew were now 

 headed down the main ridge, still on 

 direct attack, but they were instructed 

 to change tactics and come directly 

 down the spur ridge to Swamp Flat, 

 backfiring as they went if it seemed 

 likely that fire on the lower slopes of 

 the ridge could outflank them before 

 they reached Swamp Flat. Armstrong 

 thought that the work of this crew 

 and that of the road backfiring crew 

 should tie together at Swamp Flat 

 about 10 p. m. 



Loitved and Johnson next went to 

 Fly Greek. Work there was progressing 

 well. The dozer and hand lines would 

 connect with the road in time for the 

 backfiring operations. The tanker 

 crews had done a good job of holding 

 the fire at the road. While Johnson was 

 talking with Ellsworth, the other fire- 

 crew boss, at the trail and road junction, 

 the hot-shot crew arrived. Johnson 

 told the foreman to report to Freeman, 

 the volunteer under whose direction 

 he would work and who now had a 

 guide waiting further up the creek 

 trail. 



The weather forecast for next day 

 promised unchanged wind and humid- 

 ity, with slightly lower temperatures. 



Johnson and Loitved then returned 

 to Cedar Greek camp to make plans 

 for the next morning. This section at 

 the head of Cedar Creek was now defi- 

 nitely manned and equipped for early 

 morning action. The problem of the 

 moment was planning distribution of 

 the 75 fresh men. It was decided to as- 

 sign 45 of them to the Ant Creek divi- 

 sion, the rest to Fly Creek. The two 

 tankers would be pulled from Fly 

 Creek about 10 p. m. to give the crews 

 a chance to rest for the early morn- 

 ing shift. One would then be assigned 

 to each of the two road divisions. Loit- 

 ved felt from what he had seen on 

 Snag Flat that if the power-saw out- 

 fits arrived, Snag Flat should be able 

 to release the Swanson saw gangs for 

 the morning shift on the Cedar Creek 



fire. He was going back to Snag Flat 

 shortly to check. If the crews were 

 available, they would be assigned to 

 snag-falling along the two tractor 

 lines. He would have information for 

 Johnson as to their availability later 

 that evening. 



Johnson told Loitved that he felt 

 things were pretty safe on the two 

 lower divisions; that he was going by 

 saddle horse that night to the Cedar 

 Divide camp to be sure that work was 

 well correlated among the three sec- 

 tions. He would get in touch by radio 

 with Loitved, Ellsworth, and Arm- 

 strong early in the morning. 



Just before Loitved's departure, the 

 75 emergency laborers arrived. They 

 were fed at once, given the numbers 

 of their crew units, and bedded down. 

 During the evening contacts with 

 Ellsworth and Armstrong, Johnson 

 consulted with them on plans for the 

 early morning shift and decided on the 

 best distributions of the new men to 

 strengthen the tractor and hand lines 

 on Trail and Swamp Flat Ridges. A 

 tanker and small crew would be used 

 on each division along the road to hold 

 backfired sections during early-morn- 

 ing patrol. Plans called for strengthen- 

 ing all along the line on both divisions 

 at about 10:30 a. m. by utilizing all 

 men who were released from the lines 

 by midnight that night and the bull- 

 dozers and the remaining two tankers. 

 Accordingly, Johnson called together 

 the foremen and strawbosses who were 

 on hand for morning shift, gave them 

 their assignments for morning, and dis- 

 cussed the nature of the next day's job 

 with them. Then they turned in. 



Johnson, wanting to reassure him- 

 self as to the outcome of the backfiring 

 at a treacherous angle in the Ant Creek 

 road, went out to have a look, after 

 gulping a cup of coffee that the Red 

 Cross cook had given him. He found 

 that what he had feared had hap- 

 pened the fire had broken over the 

 road. Fortunately the reserve bulldozer 

 had arrived in time to surround and 

 control it. Lines had been connected 

 to Swamp Flat, and that side of the job 



