AN OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF THE SAN BERNARDINO FIRE 



In view of the many conflicting newspaper reports 

 on the recent Can Bernardino fire, District Forester Coert 

 DuLuis, who is in general charge ofthe National Forests in 

 iforriia, has issued the following authentic account: 



The fire started about noon on Tuesday, July 5, 

 fron on unknovm cause, on the west side of the road up 

 Waterman Canyon. Within an hour and a half, three Forest 

 rangers and seven citizens had reached the ground and 

 brought the original fire under control with less than two 

 and a half acres burned over. A separate fire, starting 

 from a brand, blown from the main fire, had also been 

 detected and extinguished. Another spark had evidently 

 Jumped across the road from the original fire when it was 

 burning its hardest. This spark smoldered but did not show 

 up in flame or smoke until some fifteen minutes after the 

 first two fires had been brought under perfect control. The 

 ten men on the ground attacked this third fire promptly and 

 except for the high wind then blowing, they would have had no 

 difficulty in conquering it. 



Cases are very rare where fires escape from control 

 after being reached by the Rangers as promptly as this San 

 Bernardino fire. When the Rangers and fire fighters had this 

 third fire almost under control, a furious gust of rrind came 

 up the canyon, scattered fire all over the hillside from the 

 one half acre then burning, and forced the men to run for their 

 lives* Except for this extraordinary wind, which eye witnesses 

 say was a small hurricane, the fire would never have escaped 

 and would have represented little more than a figure in annual 

 fire reports and other statistics. 



After the fire escaped, it burned with uncontrollable 

 force during the remainder of the afternoon and covered over 

 500 acres by 6 O'clock Tuesday evening. Realizing that help 

 was needed immediately, the ranger in charge when the fire 

 escaped prornptly telephoned to San Bernardino for men. Right 

 here the protective system broke down. Naturally -no Forest 

 officer was in San Bernardino and no arrangements had been 

 made in advance for the immediate dispatch of volunteer fire 

 fighters or organized bodies of men in caee of fire. The 

 men telephoned for by the ranger were not sent. The small 

 force of r.en on the ground fought without help twenty-one 

 hours, or until 11 o'clock on Wednesday, July 26. Recog- 

 nizing the hopelessness of the situation, two rangers then 

 left the fire line and went to San Bernardino for men. The 

 orportunity to conquer the fire had, however, been lost for 

 lack of help during the first twenty-four hours. During the 



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