How They Start. 



How do all these fires get started? The causes are many 

 but practically all can be classified as preventable. The usual 

 causes in the order of their frequency are: Railroad engines, 

 lightning, careless campers, fishermen and hunters! settlers 

 burning brush to clear land for cultivation; logging engines 

 and sawmills; malicious incendiaries. 



The railroad's right-of-way is usually from ICiO to 200 feet 

 wide. In many places within, the national forests the brush 

 and debris has never been properly cleared up on the right- 

 of-way after the large timber has been removed, and dry punk 

 logs and debris form the most inflammable kind of material 

 for ignition by a spark from the engine. Despite the improve- 

 ment both in engines and spark arresters the railroads still 

 hold first place as a cause for forest fires. 



The second cause of fires, and the only one which can be 

 classified as non-preventable, is lightning. During dry sea- 

 sons many electrical storms occur over mountain regions and 

 set numerous small fires when lightning strikes a tree and 

 starts a fire in the debris and humus on the ground below. 

 If the storm is accompanied by rain there is, of course, little 

 or no danger; but it is more usual for these mountain elec- 

 trical storms to be unaccompanied by rain. 



Unfortunately many of the campers either are careless or 

 are ignorant of the proper handling of campfires. The care- 

 lessness takes the form of leaving the fires unextinguished 

 or in throwing about cigar or cigarette stumps or knocking 

 out pipes. The usual Turkish cigaret is a slow fuse that 

 burns continuously to the end. The ignorance is shown in 

 the failure to keep campfires small and in not building them 

 in fairly open spaces and away from punk logs and debris. 



Many fires unquestionably have incendiary origin. Various 

 motives prompt this act, which is as hard to explain or to 

 anticipate as any other wanton violation of law. In addition 

 there are many fires which occur from miscellaneous causes 

 the burning wad from a shotgun cartridge, the concentra- 

 tion of the sun's rays through a glass bottle. 



29 



