WASHINGTON FOREST FIRE ASSOCIATION :: :: Nine 



This dry spell of weather continued until September 6th, a period 

 of 72 days, in which only .02 inches of rain fell. The only fire of any 

 consequence and which burned any appreciable amount of timber 

 occurred in the month of May, on the 20th, 21st and 22nd days. 

 These three days were unusually warm and windy (the wind blowing 

 from the Northeast), a combination of weather conditions which is 

 productive of and conducive to forest fires. 



Organization 



Owing to these unusual weather conditions, so early in the year, 

 we were obliged to put some rangers on duty by the 20th of May. On 

 June 1st, our entire force of 68 rangers and 12 inspectors were in the 

 field. These men were able to take care of the work until about the 

 middle of July, at which time it became necessary to employ extra 

 help to cope with the situation, which had become dangerous as a 

 result of the continued dry weather. Beginning with the 17th of 

 July we increased our force of patrolmen to 140 men, and these were 

 kept busy until September 6th. 



This was a very trying summer for the inspectors and rangers 

 and only those who have had experience in such work can realize 

 what so dry a season means to the men in the field. Some of our men, 

 were engaged in fighting fire from the opening of the season in May 

 until its close in September. I wish to say at this point in my report 

 that, with scarcely an exception, our employees did their utmost to 

 control the fire situation, were faithful in the performance of their 

 duties and loyal to the interests of the Association. While there were 

 a great many fires, which burned over a large amount of ground, yet, 

 if a lot of hard work had not been done to check some of these and to 

 prevent others from being started, the results from so dry a season 

 would be far different than what they are. 



Season's Work 



The work performed by the Association was much the same as in 

 former years. In April a letter was sent to loggers warning against 

 the practice of felling trees into standing timber on adjoining property, 

 such w r ork creating a bad fire hazard and being a violation of the 

 Forest Fire Laws. The early dry weather facilitated the burning of 

 slashings and was taken advantage of by a good many loggers to 

 clean up the debris from their winter's operations. In some localities 

 no slash burning was attempted, owing to unfavorable weather condi- 

 tions. Our rangers were prevented from taking a very active part in 

 this work, owing to so many fires springing up at this time, which 

 demanded attention to keep them out of the timber. The results and 

 experiences of this season's work prove conclusively that early slash 



