not spread appreciably. It is simply driven ahead in a 

 narrow streak and cannot form a wide and dangerous 

 front. The fire that wrecked Lawler, Automba, Moose 

 Lake, Cloquet, East Duluth and other smaller towns 

 was not a single great conflagration. There were at 

 least five great, separate fires, and each of them was a 

 combination of many smaller fires joined to form that 

 dangerous widespread front from which there was no 

 escape. 



Any one of those five fires was far too large to be con- 

 trolled, but the little fires which made them possible 

 were not. Any one of them could have been put out 

 with comparative ease. Many like them were put out, 

 but what can one man do with a million acres? One 

 ranger had a district as large as the state of Connec- 

 ticut. He did magnificent work and had there been 

 ten of him instead of one those larger fires had never 

 been. 



For these small fires did not start in a day. Set by 

 the carelessness of settlers in clearing land, the sparks 

 from locomotives, the campfires of hunters, the clear- 

 ing up fires of land men, the owners of swamp land, 

 they had been burning for weeks. The rangers knew 

 they were there ; it was simply a physical impossibility 

 to get around to them all. An adequate force would 

 have had plenty of time to work. 



Yes, these fires were certainly preventable, as forest 

 fires always have been preventable. The question is, 

 are we going to insist that they be stopped? Or are 

 we going to let one thousand graves and the blackened 

 ruins of countless homes cry out to us in vain? 



15 



