Fire 



More than 72,200 national forest acres were burned over in the calendar year 1937. Some 

 500 acres burned to every 1,000,000 acres protected. Losses of area have never before 

 been held to so low a total. But the 1937 fire season from the standpoint of loss of life was 

 disastrous. . . . 



Fifteen heroic CCC boys met horrible deaths in the Blackwater fire. Thirty-eight others 

 were injured but recovered. The tragedy was due to an unforeseeable combination of 

 sudden changes of weather which deprived crews of what should normally have been a 

 nearby safety zone. . . . The 1937 honor roll of men who died on far-flung national forest 

 fire lines numbers 20. . . . Report of Ferdinand Silcox, Chief of the Forest Service, 1938. 



AN UNEASY FEELING hung over the little group of campers in the big 

 cedar grove on the Priest River of Idaho. It was the first of August. The 

 forest was tinder dry, and there were disquieting rumors of forest fires off to 

 the west. 



The wind increased and the rumors were confirmed. There came now 

 a steady patter of twigs and pine needles falling on the tents. The campers 

 drew together, excitedly talking. One of them pointed to a white cloud 

 thrust over the timbered ridge to the west. It grew and ballooned into a 

 cauliflowerlike thunderhead. "Fire!" cried a man, pointing. Other cries 

 rose: "The Freeman Lake fire has blown up." . . . "Strike tents!" . . . 

 "Time to get out of here." 



Down the road a siren sounded. Three motortrucks loaded with fire 

 fighters thundered by. Smoke settled into the valley, cutting off all distant 

 visibility. Ashes swept up by the great heat draft over the ridge commenced 

 to fall among the cedars. Hastily each family group struck its tents, packed 

 equipment. All ease and peace vanished. The holiday was spoiled. One 

 by one, like startled rabbits, cars scampered out of the forest. By nightfall 



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