CHIEF FIRE WARDEN. 11 



Total acres burned over, 15,585. Damage, $28,292. 

 Classification of causes: 



Clearing land, 1 1. 



Railroad locomotives, 9. 



Other causes, 7. 



Unknown, 25. 



REPORT OF FIRE WARDENS AND OTHERS OF FOREST 

 FIRES FOR 1903. 



AITKIN COUNTY. 



Ernest Rainins, chairman, town of Millward, June 24: 



On the 3d instant, about 3 o'clock, p. m., a fire started 

 on section 5, which burned over 40 acres and destroyed 

 nearly 15 acres of fine, green, old birch and balsam; 

 damage $75. I was working on section 6 and saw heavy, 

 black smoke beginning to rise from section 5; I imme- 

 diately went to the fire, which was burning briskly on land 

 cut over last winter. It was extinguished by watching 

 and holding it. Eight persons assisted. I notified the 

 chairman of the town of Beaver to be ready if more men 

 should be needed. The weather was dry and windy, and 

 had been dry for about two weeks. I believe someone 

 walking over the land started the fire with no reason for 

 so doing. 



ANOKA COUNTY. 



W. S. Fenderson, chairman, town of Bethel, May 8. 



A fire today, caused by someone burning hay land on 

 section 13, burned over half a section of meadow and 

 light timber; damage $12. It came near burning a 

 house, barn and outbuildings; was extinguished in 6 

 hours by two men digging a trench. Weather dry and 

 windy for five days. The fire did not burn deep enough 

 to kill the timber. 



