PREVENTION OF FOREST FIRE LOSSES 



BY SMITH RILEY 



IT is well known the world (Tver that America of all 

 nations is careless with fire and although her equip- 

 ment for suppression is of the finest, our yearly 

 losses from lire are enormous when compared with other 

 nations. The explanation of this would seem to be a 

 lack of thoroughness in adopting and practicing methods 

 of fire prevention. Does this failure come from the 

 typical American haste in 

 doing all things? Is it 

 that in our construction 

 work we are in such haste 

 to arrive at completion we 

 cannot take proper precau- 

 tions to prevent loss from 

 fire? Or is it that the ease 

 with which property is 

 gained and insured makes 

 one careless whether it is 

 destroyed by fire or some 

 other way? 



It is interesting to fol- 

 low this line of thought in 

 relation to forest fires do- 

 ing enormous damage each 

 year. These fires are from 

 two causes, namely : Those 

 started by man, and those 

 started by lightning. A 

 campaign of prevention 

 should lessen and gradu- 

 ally eliminate a large part 

 of loss from the first cause, 

 while a policy of suppres- 

 sion must be applied to 

 lightning caused fires. Lack 

 of realization of the dam- 

 age created by fire is cer- 

 tainly responsible for the 

 greatest loss by man-made 

 fires and it is quite inter- 

 esting to note the gradual 

 decrease in forest loss in 

 those regions where prog- 

 ress has been made in educating t>fte public to the 

 necessity of care with fire to prevent such loss. The 

 most effective way of doing this seems to be the forci- 

 ble bringing home of the realization, by drastic meas- 

 ures, of the losses by fire and the need for cautious use 

 of this element. 



In New York State the action of the Conservation 

 Commission in forcing the railroads to burn oil in 

 engines running over all forest roads during the tire 

 season has been a big step towards public realization 



AX EFFECTIVE MEASURE OF FIRE PREVENTION 



This is a form of spark arrester which has been employed with good 

 effect on locomotives in Colorado. 



of the necessity for fire prevention. In South Dakota 

 the most has been accomplished by a suit against a 

 railroad that caused a big loss by forest fire. 



Where the campaign for prevention has followed 

 the principle of emphasizing the necessity of extreme 

 care in any use of fire and the damage resulting to all 

 forms of forest growth by its promiscuous use, much 



greater progress has been 

 made towards a realiza- 

 tion of need for public 

 care in its use. In Min- 

 nesota recognition is given 

 to the policy of spring 

 burning of logging slashes, 

 which amounts to nothing 

 more than setting out fire 

 in such areas as soon as 

 it will run in the spring 

 and letting it burn. From 

 a vantage point in the for- 

 ested region one may count 

 a dozen or more such fires 

 when the season is on. 

 There is no question that 

 this promiscuous use of 

 fire does much to deaden 

 the realization of the dam- 

 age done by fires and the 

 public realization of the 

 necessity of caution in fire 

 use or the need of prompt 

 action to stamp out fires 

 gaining headway in dan- 

 gerous seasons of the year. 

 A public, understanding 

 that fires are purposely 

 set which destroy forest 

 growth, is not going to be 

 very keen in responding to 

 a policy for putting out 

 fires that may be burning 

 this same type of forest 

 growth. I feel sure the 

 present losses and the lax attitude of the public toward 

 this loss will continue in Minnesota wherever the pres- 

 ent policy of spring burning is allowed to continue in 

 a wholesale way. 



There is, therefore, a much keener realization of 

 need for caution where fire is not promiscuously used 

 and I feel sure that the problems of protection against 

 fire loss will grow less and be solved with much greater 

 promptness where the burning over of forest land is 

 considered detrimental to the highest degree unless 



UN 



