of Ares in the forest one of the factors that make for the safety 

 of the forest. The fire ranging staff of any forest must be 

 well selected; the men must be capable and efficient. 



But even with due notice of fire and a good fire-fighting 

 crew there would be serious difficulty in every city in hand- 

 ling the fire situation if all the streets across a city were 

 blocked so that the fire fighters would have to take a long 

 detour through the suburbs in order to come around to a fire 

 which was within a very short distance of them originally. 

 This is the situation however that at the present time faces 

 the fire fighters in the forests at every point. Neither roads 

 nor trails are opened up through great extents of the forest, 

 and passage is almost impossible. Fire is within a very short 

 distance of the fire-fighting force and they are compelled to 

 take a detour which will mean the loss of hours and possibly 

 days, or else consume the same time in cutting out a new road 

 or trail, with the result that when they arrive at the fire it 

 has got beyond control altogether. Fire and war must be 

 largely fought before they occur. 



When the fire brigade of a city arrives at a fire it has with 

 it the equipment necessary for extinguishing the fire. In 

 these modern days in the cities this equipment has become 

 very elaborate in its nature. In the forest there is the same 

 necessity but owing to difficulties of transport, water supply, 

 etc., it is not possible to handle fires with similar equipment. 

 The shovel, the ax, the hoe, the canvas water bucket, are the 

 great standbys in fighting fire. Chemical extinguishers and 

 portable pumps are used to a certain extent but their use is 

 necessarily limited. Equipment sufficient and conveniently 

 placed in the forest must be ready. 



These methods followed out thoroughly will make the forest 

 fire-proof. Until they are the case is hopeless. 



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