Machines and Fires in the South 



529 



was that the tractor and plow in com- 

 bination must be light enough to be 

 transported on a IJ/a-ton truck. We 

 found finally that a commercial 18- 

 horsepower tractor, with several altera- 

 tions, would fit the need. Then we de- 

 signed a truck chassis to make loading 

 and unloading easier. Seventeen of the 

 units (called Ranger Pals) were as- 

 signed in 1944 to 10 high-fire-occur- 

 rence ranger districts. Experience with 

 them in the field revealed opportuni- 

 ties to make further improvements, 

 which we did. Twelve other light- 

 weight units and 10 more heavy units 

 were placed in operation in 1945. 

 Radio receivers were installed in about 

 half of the units. The development and 

 field testing of a middleweight unit was 

 under way. 



Eight improved lightweight units 

 and 10 heavy- transport units were 

 added in 1946. Since then, 6 middle- 

 weight, 8 lightweight, and 2 fly as- 

 semblies, and nine 4x4 power wagon 

 tankers have reached the fire lines. 

 Most of them have sets for radio com- 

 munication. 



At the same time, several State 

 foresters and private owners adopted 

 some of the machines and worked to 

 perfect others. Their difficulty, how- 

 ever, was that they had few pieces of 

 equipment and large areas to protect. 



Men on the national forests faced a 

 like situation of not enough, and we 

 had to choose between spreading the 

 equipment generally or making some 

 concentrations. To obtain the great- 

 est use and protection and at the same 

 time measure the economic aspects, we 

 chose to favor the ranger districts that 

 had the worst combinations of high 

 fire occurrence and fast rates of fire 

 spread. A number of other districts 

 that were favorable for plow use were 

 left without mechanical units. Because 

 there were so many critical areas, we 

 believed then that it was impractical 

 to equip fully any one ranger district 

 with what we have come to believe 

 since is the minimum number of units. 



By 1946, however, six of the worst 

 fire districts had enough equipment to 



802062 49 35 



handle their situation on all but the 

 most hazardous fire-weather days. 



Meanwhile, experience produced 

 improved tactics, increased the effec- 

 tiveness of each unit, and made it 

 possible to compare and analyze equip- 

 ment, work, and trends. 



One analysis brought together data 

 for three fire seasons on seven ranger 

 districts in Mississippi and Louisiana. 

 The first was in 1940 ( 1941 records for 

 two districts), when 315 fires were 

 fought with muscle-power and the fire 

 fighters were boys and men of the 

 Civilian Conservation Corps well 

 trained, well organized, and readily 

 available, and with their own fast 

 transportation. The second season was 

 the same months of 1946, when 526 

 fires were fought on those districts with 

 mechanical suppression units in num- 

 bers adequate to permit the proper 

 strength on the larger fires but often 

 inadequate for prompt attacks on addi- 

 tional fires. 



The third season was 1947, when, 

 with added numbers of equipment 

 units, 627 fires were controlled. It is 

 significant that in 1947, during pe- 

 riods of high fire occurrence, fewer 

 fires had to be left to burn unattended 

 until equipment could be disengaged 

 and dispatched from another fire and 

 that new equipment enabled us to 

 assign two or more suppression units 

 to potentially bad fires. Each of these 

 units had three men and could build 

 as much fire line as 30 men without 

 like equipment; furthermore, to the 

 extent that radio sets were available 

 for them, they could be placed at stra- 

 tegic travel points. The greater the 

 danger of fire, the greater was the 

 number of units activated; the result 

 was that the equivalent of a strong 

 suppression force was ready to attack 

 a few minutes after a fire was dis- 

 covered. 



The results of the analysis man- 

 power alone in 1940, mechanized 

 equipment in 1946, and increased 

 mechanized equipment in 1947 are 

 given in the table on page 531. (Not in- 

 cluded are fires on fewer than 5 acres 



