86 



REPORT OF THE 



No. 3 



(4) Fires 



Once again the season was particularly favourable for forest fire control, 

 no general hazard developing. Not since 1923 has there been experienced what 

 can really be termed a "bad fire year." Serious conditions have developed 

 locally but these have usually been of short duration. 



During the past season the "fire weather" was confined largely to the 

 Hudson Inspectorate, where 87,580 acres were burned over or 87.2 per cent, of 

 the total area for the Province for the entire season. This large acreage was 

 practically all accounted for by seven fires which started in May, June and the 

 early part of July, when the weather in the western part of the Province was 

 very dry. 



Of this area burned in the Hudson Inspectorate 93.9 per cent, was due to 

 camp fires left by prospectors, tourists, Indians and others travelling in the woods. 

 Of the seven large fires which accounted for the large acreage all but two were 

 beyond the reach of our personnel and equipment, occurring mostly between 

 Cairns and Favourable lakes. 



In the remainder of the Province the weather was generally wet, no fires of 

 any kind being reported in some Chief Ranger districts. In fact, in some areas 

 there was so much rainfall that brush disposal and improvement work were 

 repeatedly held up. 



The total number of fires for the season was 536 and the total area burned 

 over 100,383 acres, 37.1 per cent, of which was merchantable timber. The total 

 area burned over in the region where control was attempted was 48,633 acres, and 

 32,720 acres of this total was accounted for by one fire which occurred near 

 Cairns Lake in the District of Patricia. 



A number of fires occurred in other districts but these were for the most 

 part limited to very small areas, 121 fires in the Sudbury Inspectorate burning 

 only 2,065 acres. 



Considerable advance has unquestionably been made in the matter of fire 

 prevention, detection and suppression, but just how efficient the organization is 

 cannot be determined until another real "fire year" is experienced. 



The number of fires caused by campers was high, 21.7 per cent., due to the 

 number attributed to prospectors, tourists and Indians in the Hudson Inspec- 

 torate. 



Of the total number of 536 fires, 27.2 per cent, were confined to areas of 

 one-quarter acre or less and 77.5 per cent, to areas of ten acres or less. 



CLASSIFICATION OF FOREST FIRES 

 By Month 



