1912 



Canadian Forestry Journal. Xovcmher, 1918 



The Lesson of the Minnesota Disaster 



By W. T. Cox, State Foresti:h of Minnesota 



A Terrible Waste of Life and a Vast Property by 

 Insufficient Rangers and Lethargic State Policy 



Every one is interested in knowing 

 how the great fire calamity came to 

 occur, — the extent of loss of Hfe, 

 what areas were burned over, and 

 how much material damage was done. 

 It will be some time before accurate 

 information is available on some of 

 these points, but enough is already 

 known to render a general statement 

 advisable. Many consider the cal- 

 amity a mysterious or unavoidable 

 visitation. This, however, it was not, 

 as the forest rangers and others who 

 have made a study of fires will testify. 

 Groups of quietly smoldering fires 

 were fanned by a sixty-mile gale into 

 rulnning fires that united to form a 

 so i d front. The force of the gale 

 was so great that the fires were driven 

 forward on a front which constantly 

 diminished in width. The several 

 intense fires, therefore, were in com- 

 paratively narrow strips, separated 

 by large belts of green timberlands; 

 and twenty mile<i is perhaps as great 

 a distance as anyone of these fires 

 traveled. 



These fires, like all other great 

 forest fires, resulted from carelessness 

 on the part of a great many people. 

 Incendiarism in the sense of setting 

 fires dehberately to destroy property 

 (through a conflagration) was not 

 the chief cause. The devastating 

 fires of October 12th sprang in the 

 main from slow-burning marsh or 

 bog fires, the number of which had 

 been increasing as the fall season open- 

 ed up. These fires were set by careless 

 people travehng over peat road grades, 

 by railroad locomotives, or by land 

 owners who were willing to risk 

 their own and their neighbors' fami- 

 lies in the hope of finding an easy 

 way of clearing their marsh, peat, or 

 cut-over lands. While fire may at 

 times be used in land clearing, it has 

 been demonstrated that the time and 

 method cannot be left to the judg- 



ment of settlers, loggers and railroad 

 companies. 



\ alue of Skilled Rangers 



With a sufficient number of forest 

 patrolmen and rangers to see that 

 burning is done only under proper 

 restriction and control, and to see 

 also that any fires which may start 

 accidentally or otherwise are prompt- 

 ly extinguilshed, there would be no 

 opportunity for a big fire to come into 

 existence and gain headway. Even 

 during a high wind the starting of 

 one fire is not likely to destroy a whole 

 community. The harder the wind, 

 the less the fire would spread out. 

 It then travels in the form of a 

 streak, which can be fought success- 

 fully at the sides, and from which 

 escape is relatively easy. It is only 

 when a fire has been allowed to burn 

 long enough to attain a wide front,, 

 or when a number of small fires are 

 close enough together to easily unite 

 thus forming a wide front, that 

 settlements are seriously endangered. 

 Neither of these conditions should 

 ever exist, but to prevent them re- 

 quires systematic patrol by a con- 

 siderable force year after year, 

 throughout the danger seasons. A 

 large force of inexperienced help for a 

 few days is of value only in a defen- 

 sive way and for the time being. 

 Magistrates too Easy. 



During this fire season the few 

 rangers and patrolmen discovered 

 and extinguished hundreds of fires. 

 They arrested 60 persons and con- 

 victed 32 persons. Light fines were 

 usually imposed. However, this did 

 not suffice, since many other fires 

 were not discovered or reported until 

 they had burned out or got beyond 

 control. 



Although authentic figures have 

 not as yet been compiled, it is known 

 that several hundred settlers lost 

 their lives in the recent forest fires. A 

 great difficulty is that settlers seldom 



