HOW TELEPHONES SAVED LIVES 



By C, J. BUCK 

 Assistant District Forester, U, S. Forest Service, Portland 



(From the Pittsficld (Mass.) Journal of October 5.) 



(The following account of the fight against the destructive fires in southern Oregon 

 demonstrates by experimental proof what the value of prompt communication is in emergen- 

 cies such as are likely to arise at any time during the danger season in the rugged country of 

 the West Mr. Buck, who tells the story, is at present assigned as chief of the Office of Lands 

 in his district, but assumed charge of the fire-fighting force, as described, when the need of 

 good generalship became great. Ed.) 



HOW telephones saved settlers from 

 death in forest fires/' is the at- 

 tractive title of a story told by 

 Assistant District Forester C. J. Buck 

 in the Oregon Sunday Journal of Sep- 

 tember 25, when he returned from suc- 

 cessful generalship of the southern 

 ( )regon fire situation. 



The timber loss in southern Oregon 

 was 800,000,000 feet on Government 

 and private holdings, yet not a life was 

 lost. It was the worst fire in north- 

 west history, but telephones carrying 

 warnings with electric speed warned 

 the settlers and the hunters and the 

 campers so that they got safely each 

 time from the path of the devouring 

 destruction. 



There were fires that raced faster 

 than a man could run and burned with 

 such tremendous ferocity that green 

 forests were completely burned. Where 

 great trees had towered to magnificent 

 heights, only smoking stumps were 

 left. The breath of the flame in the 

 canyon like a furnace heated seven 

 times laughed derisively at the puny 

 efforts of puny men to stay its course 

 and reached out a menace of death, to 

 enfold them. 



Here and there were the isolated 

 homes of lonely settlers ; out in the 

 woods were hunters ; along the streams 

 were fishermen. Over the country 

 hung the smoke pall. The great area 

 with its clustering towns and its scat- 

 648 



tered people had never known such a 

 drought. It was as dry as the sands 

 of Sahara where rains never fall. 

 The sun had been shining down day 

 after day its heat unbearable and the 

 forests were like tinder, ready to blaze 

 from a spark. The hot winds raged, 

 too, day after day, ready to fan the 

 spark into a roaring torrent of madly 

 spreading fire. 



This was the condition found by 

 Forester Buck when he stepped off the 

 train at Medford, going from Port- 

 land to respond to urgent calls for as- 

 sistance. The people were almost 

 scared to death. The country was so 

 dry, the winds so high and so unceas- 

 ing, and the smoke cloud so dense that 

 no one knew just when the flame 

 would reach out hungrily in his direc- 

 tion. 



FIRES ALL AROUND 



"Fires were buring at Mount Pitts, 

 Anderson Creek, Wagner Creek near 

 Ashland, near Butte Falls, on Clover 

 Creek, Elk Creek, and at Cat Creek," 

 said Mr. Buck. : 'There had been no 

 preparation for so many fires. They 

 were all unexpected. There were not 

 by any manner of means enough of a 

 fire-fighting force on the ground to 

 handle the blazes, even had they been 

 of the ordinary controllable sort. Con- 

 fusion was added to apprehension by 



