12 METHODS OF COMMUNICATION FOR FOREST PROTECTION 



establish communication by some other direct means. The methods by which this may 

 be done are explained in this manual in Chapter X of Part II and in Part III. It is 

 desirable here only to indicate the organization by which it is effected. Naturally, such 

 communication will be required only in exceptional cases. A camp that will be occupied 

 for only a few days at the most and that would need to send only a very few messages 

 would handle them by messenger. But where a large camp may be occupied for a period 

 of weeks, perhaps, and is only one of several engaged in the control of a single large 

 fire, then it may be extremely important to establish direct connection. It is the same 

 problem that faces the military officer who must decide whether to end an order by 

 messenger or have it transmitted by signal. The circumstances in each case and 

 knowledge of the possibilities of all means available must be the guide in the action 

 taken. 



5 FIRE SUPPRESSION STRATEGY 



The strategy of fire-fighting as distinct from tactics has the same significance as in 

 military operations, that is, it comprises all those broader elements of the problem such 

 as existing conditions of fire, topography, season, forest, forces available, and other 

 factors which taken together determine in a broad way the general method of attack. 

 Unfortunately there is not -available in fire-fighting records any body of detailed reports 

 of fire-fighting operations with the reasons therefor and the results attained, such as 

 exist in military history, and lacking this essential data fire-fighting strategy still 

 remains in a condition of very rudimentary development as a practical art. In actual 

 practice it is necessary to rely entirely upon the individual capacity of some member 

 of the force who has himself only his own individual experience to depend upon. Non- 

 specialized forces assume this knowledge of all their members. Specialized forces 

 undertake to bring to bear on this important line of work a more extensive experience 

 by making available for study by the permanent staff such detailed reports of fire-fight- 

 ing strategical operations as can be secured and by relieving some of the staff officers of 

 most of the usual details of forest protection work so that they may give special atten- 

 tion to this important phase. 



Section 12 Duties of Suppression Line Officers 

 1 CAMP MANAGEMENT 



Unlike, military camps, fire camps are extremely simple/ It is very seldom that 

 such camps are large enough or remain in one place long enough to require special 

 sanitary precautions or highly specialized organization. Provision for safety in loca- 

 tion is necessary but usually is easily secured. The same is truie of provision for 

 medical service. Injuries, sometimes fatal, are not uncommon in fighting fires and yet, 

 on the whole, they are not sufficiently numerous to require any special organization. 

 There is, therefore, in a specialized fire-protection staff nothing that corresponds to the 

 medical corps or sanitary corps of an army. All responsibilities of this nature as a rule 

 fall upon one of the line officers, such as the camp foreman. The greatest advance has 

 probably been made by those organizations which maintain at their base supply stations 

 a number of special fire camp first-aid kits, which are distributed by the quartermaster 

 as needed, and handled by the timekeeper or the camp foreman in the field. 



2 FIRE SUPPRESSION TACTICS 



The tactics of fire-fighting include all those specific measures of control that are 

 employed in the immediate vicinity of the fine. As a specific illustration, a decision to 

 divide the crew and begin the attack on the fire on both flanks at once rather than to 

 endeavour to combat the head is a strategical one, but a decision as to whether to cut a 

 trench near the edge of the fire or to use a trail existing at some distance from the 



