Canadian Fnreslrij Journal, July, 1918 



1775 



Substantial Forest Losses in West 



Word received by the ForeslrN- 

 Journal on July 19 from British 

 Cohimbia states thai the forest (ire 

 peril is the worst since 1910 and that 

 rain at the dale of writing was very 

 badly needed. Experienced fire 

 fighters were scarce and those direc- 

 ting the operations were working 

 practically without sleep for days at 

 a time. On July 11th, rain was 

 falling generally in the coast dis- 

 tricts, where the propertv loss is 

 estimated at $250,000. 



On Vancouver Island bad lires 

 occurred at Campbell's Bay, Che- 

 mainus, and Courlenay. At Grief 

 Point, Bloedel, Welch and Stewart 

 suffered a $50,000 loss. The latter 

 proved one of the hardest fires to 

 combat, as two large fires simultan- 

 eously worked their way from Grief 

 Point northward and from Powell 

 River southward. It was feared for a 

 time that they would meet with the 

 resultant loss of valuable logging 

 locomotives. 



The forest fire peril which created 

 regrettably heavy losses in Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick last 

 month has caused great anxiety in 

 British Columbia and Alberta. While 

 official reports are not yet available 

 for the Forestry Journal, newspaper 

 despatches from Vancouver claim 

 that on July 2nd thirty forest fires 

 were then in progress, although the 

 British Columbia Forest Service an- 

 nounced officially that none of the 

 fires was of serious extent. At the 

 same time a public warning was given 

 that the fire hazard was to be regarded 

 as greater than last year when several 

 disastrous losses occurred. Permits 

 for burning slash had been cancellel 

 at the end of June until weather con- 

 ditions materially improved. Rain 

 \vas sorely needed. 



The telegraphic despatches from 

 Calgary dated June 27th asserted that 

 dozens of forest fires were raging in 

 British Columbia and Alberta, and 

 that damage to the eastern slopeof the 

 water shed wasv anticipated. Fifteen 



(ires were raging on Rest Creek, eight 

 fires at Vernon and a large fire at 

 Chemainus. 



A despatch from Vancouver dated 

 .July 5th stated that No. 1 camp, 

 International Lumber Company at 

 Campbell River was burned out by 

 forest lires and five logging engines 

 were abandoned by their crews. If 

 these engines prove to be a total loss, 

 that item alone will run to $70,000. 



The "Pacihc Lumberman" of Van- 

 couver states that 3,000,000 feet of 

 standing cedar in the Squamish Valley 

 were totally consumed, as well as 

 about 300 cords of shingle bolts. 



The Provincial Forest Service has 

 increased its fleet of motor cars which 

 were found of great use in fire fighting 

 last year. 



Ontario and Quebec have enjoyed 

 noteworthy freedom from serious 

 forest fire trouble thus far. Quite a 

 number of small fires have been re- 

 ported in both provinces, Ontario 

 registering 244. Of this number 175 

 were attributed to the railways. Per- 

 mits to burn slash, etc., up to May 31st 

 numbered 2213 of which 10,364 acres 

 in 106 townships were burned over. 

 The Railway Board inspection reports 

 show that 454 locomotives within the 

 Ontario boundary were inspected and 

 218 were found to be defective in their 

 fire prevention appliances. 



Districis Reduced 



The Ontario department this year 

 made several changes in the handling 

 of the work to have closer inspection 

 of the territory covered. In five 

 cases the territory has been con- 

 solidated, while there were two sub- 

 divisions made, making the districts 

 number 31 instead of 34 as last year. 



The number of assistant chiefs 

 have been increased to 41, which 

 gives one assistant fire ranger super- 

 vision over twelve rangers. The 

 rangers make daily reports of the 

 weather, wind velocity, fires if any, 

 and any strangers they meet on their 

 patrol, and these are sent monthly 



