Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1918 



1985 



The necessity of this work and its 

 great importance will be seen when it 

 is stated that a very large percentage 

 of the locomotives examined had 

 serious defects in their fire protective 

 appliances, which were immediately 

 remedied at the request of our Inspec- 

 tor. The seriousness of the forest 

 fire hazard along railroads is easily 

 realized when it is stated that over 

 788 fires occurring from the smoke- 

 stacks and ashpans of locomotives, 

 operating through the forests were 

 extinguished bv our patrolmen during 

 1918. 



Public Sentiment Improved 



Considerable improvement in gen- 

 eral fire protection throughout the 

 province and greater interest by the 

 public has been noted, due to a con- 

 siderable extent to the educative 

 propaganda recently adopted. Over 

 15,000 attractive and warning posters 

 were placed throughout the Province. 

 The Press was used to a large extent. 

 Through co-operation with the Board 

 of Education, circulars on fire pro- 

 tection were read in 1500 country 

 schools by the teachers, and the 

 children urged to be careful with fire 

 in the woods. Five hundred (500) 

 fire protection posters were placed 

 in railway smoking cars through the 

 permission of the railroads. One 

 thousand circulars on slash burning 

 were distributed. Over 100 various 

 interesting slides on fire protection 

 were distributed and shown in many 

 of the forty motion picture houses 

 in the Province. Envelopes for all 

 correspondence carried fire protection 

 data during the fire season; several 

 thousand pocket whetstones carrying 

 fire protection information were dis- 

 tributed to woodsmen, hunters and 

 fishermen; a course of ten lectures 

 on the Crown Lands was given to the 

 Provincial Normal School students 

 last year, and it is considered that 

 this brought beneficial results, and it 

 is probably that the course will be 

 continued; 1000 copies of the Fire Act 

 were distributed, — the whole tending 

 to create a healthy sentiment regard- 

 ing the importance of fire protection. 

 The need of all this publicity is fully 

 justified when the following sum- 



mary of the fires reported is consid- 

 ered. 



The above tabulations show that 

 over 80 per cent, of the damage done 

 was caused by the carelessness of 

 fishermen, campers, hunters and 

 smokers neglecting their camp fires 

 or throwing away burning matches, 

 and by the railroads through defects 

 in the fire protective appliances on 

 their locomotives. 



It is therefore absolutely essential 

 that carefulness with fire, and a proper 

 appreciation of this our greatest 

 national resource, should be so im- 

 pressed on the minds of our citizens, 

 especially those whose business or 

 pleasure takes them within the forests, 

 that in the near future the neglected 

 camp fire will become unknown, and 

 forest fires will no longer destroy 

 the people's heritage. 



Railway fires: 788 of which 759 

 were on Governmentrowned roads. 

 Total damage $2606. Area burned 

 637 acres. 



No. of Kstimated Acreage 

 fires damage burned 



Fishermen, hunt- 

 ers, campers, 

 picnic parties, 

 neglecting camp 

 fires. 29 $55817 17874 



Settlers burning 



slash 15 8950 18t 



Industrial opera- 

 tions 5 2743 62 



Unknown causes 10 2150 318 



Incendiary 3 4 



Grand Total 850 $72266 19080 



WIRELESS FOR FOREST FIRES. 



Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis, 

 on October 13th, volunteered the use 

 of its wireless plant in maintaining 

 communication with Duluth, should 

 other sources be broken by the forest 

 fires. Dimwoody has the only au- 

 thorized radio plant in the state, 

 except the Government station at 

 Duluth. It has been able to main- 

 tain the station only through the 

 fact that naval operators have been 

 trained at the institute. 



