258 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1919 



RAGING FOREST FIRES IN THE NORTHWEST 



Damaging forest fires in Saskatchewan and 

 Alberta have been reported during the last two 

 weeks of May. While details of losses have not 

 yet reached Ottawa, newspaper and other re- 

 ports indicate that the timber loss will be con- 

 siderable. Eight Indians were burned to death 

 in the reservation north of Onion Lake and 

 Lloydminster, Saskatchewan ; other Indians were 

 severely injured and food supplies and equip- 

 ment destroyed. In a report in the Regina 

 Leader, of June 4th, it is stated that the In- 

 dian settlements in the path of the fires passed 

 through a terrible experience and that the peo- 

 ple were forced to flee for days at a time to 

 escape destruction. Aid was despatched from 

 Regina by the Department of Indian Affairs. 



Reports reaching the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch show that more or less serious fires have 

 occurred along the Big River in North-east Sas- 

 katchewan and on the Pines, Fort a la Come 

 and Porcupine Forest Reserves with some 

 troublesome fires in the Peace River country and 

 on the Bow reserve, in Western Alberta. The 

 field staff of the Dominion Forestry Branch has 

 been constantly busy in organizing fire-fighters 

 and endeavoring to restrict the zone of destruc- 

 tion. On May 23rd the air in Prince Albert, 

 Sask., was so dense with smoke that lights 

 were turned on in the majority of offices and 

 residences. Had it not been for the energetic 

 co-operation of the population along the Cana- 



II 



dian National Railway on the Big River nne, 

 many of the towns and villages would have been 

 wiped out. Four hundred railway employees 

 were engaged at one period in fighting fire in the 

 district about Prince Albert. A stiff fight oc- 

 curred to save a million feet of lumber piled in 

 the yards of the Ladder Lake Lumber Company 

 at Big River. One thousand men in the employ 

 of the company were organized in fire-fighting 

 units and by energetic work kept the con- 

 flagration in control. Reports state that several 

 hundred head of cattle were burned to death om 

 various ranches along the Big River line. No 

 mention has yet been made of loss of life ia' 

 this section. The continued absence of raini 

 created the greatest anxiety throughout the- 

 whole district north and west of Prince Albert.' 

 On the night of May 22nd a veritable gale pre- 

 vailed and the horizon in every direction around 

 the city was illumined by the glare of hundreds' 

 of conflagrations creating dense clouds of 

 smoke. 



The municipal authorities and people of 

 Prince Albert made prompt and most generous 

 preparation for the care of any refugees of the 

 burned area. One example of this fine spirit 

 was seen in an order to all hotels and restaur- 

 ants to furnish free meals at the city's expense 

 to any fire fugitives. The Regina Post states 

 that the fires about Prince Albert are the mosi' 

 extensive in the history of the country. 



MAKING NORTHERN ONTARIO SAFE 



One would think that after the terrible forest 

 fire experiences through which Northern On- 

 tario has passed, the agitation for free-running 

 fires in order to clear off the land for setde- 

 ment would have been somewhat discouraged. 

 As it was after the 1911 disaster, so since the 

 1916 catastrophe, alleged friends of the Nor- 

 thern Ontario settlers are writing columns to the 

 newspapers asserting the right of the struggling 

 farmer to fire his slashes in any way he pleases. 



The latest of these newspaper pleas appears 

 in the Cobalt Nugget of recent date signed 

 "Settler". In two columns of complamt regard- 

 ing the hardship of having to take out a per- 

 mit before lighting his land-clearmg fires. 



"Settler" never once mentions the fact that un^ 

 bridled freedom in setting fire to forests in Nor- 

 thern Ontario has on more than one occasion 

 established a chain of graveyards from New 

 Liskeard to Cochrane. In countries with the 

 peculiar conditions of Northern Ontario nc 

 method has yet been discovered for "burning ofl 

 the country" without burning up the people 

 The 1916 disaster which supplied columns ol 

 anguishing details was the product of unre- 

 stricted settlers' fires. Any modification of thf 

 present provisions would deliberately withdraw 

 the chief safeguard thrown about the thousand; 

 of men, women and children now resident in the 

 Claybelt. 



