128 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, ipi6. 



All roadmasters and officials 

 above them have in their offices the 

 names, addresses and telephone 

 numbers of special Government 

 Forest officers, and thus no time is 

 lost in summoning their aid should 

 occasion demand. 



Every fire, no matter of what size, 

 is followed up by a subsequent re- 

 port which is submitted directly the 

 fire is extinguished, by the section 

 foreman on whose section the fire 

 has occurred. By this method it is 

 possible to have a complete history 

 of every fire. This is of extreme im- 

 portance, particularly where damage 

 suits are concerned, and to an al- 

 most equal degree for the compila- 

 tion of statistics. The final disposi- 

 tion of these reports takes the form 

 of a summarized statement for the 

 year showing losses, and other sta- 

 tistics which serve as a valuable re- 

 cord for future handling and guid- 

 ance. 



How Patrols Are Handled. 



The fire patrolmen employed on 

 the Canadian Northern Railway are 

 mounted on hand velocipedes. These 

 machines are used in preference to 

 power cars. The reason for this is 

 that up to the present no power car 

 has been found that is really relia- 

 ble, and, apart from this fact, it has 

 been found that patrolmen when us- 

 ing power cars are more inclined to 

 give their attention to the condition 

 of their car than to fire protection. 

 Using hand velocipedes, these men 

 cover an average beat of 20 miles. 

 It might be said that this is rather 

 long, but it is the opinion that the 

 men passing over their beats daily 

 serve as an object lesson to other 

 employees, and their duty is really 

 more that of fire policemen than fire 

 fighters. Only in the case of small 

 fires are they expected to work and 

 extinguish them. 



The fire patrolmen record their 

 activities in a special monthly diary 

 and registration book. These books 

 are placed in special boxes at the 

 end of each patrol beat. Beats are 



numbered consecutively across each 

 province, starting at the east side of 

 the provincial boundary and num- 

 bering westward. The object of this 

 is to eliminate unnecessary corres- 

 pondence in connection with patrol 

 beats. By this system it is only ne- 

 cessary, if complaint or otherwise is 

 to be made of, say, the first beat east 

 of the Manitoba boundary, to refer 

 to it as Manitoba No. 1. The patrol 

 boxes mentioned are painted red,- 

 and there appears on them the fol- 

 lowing: "C. N. R. Fire Patrol Beat 

 No. ..." The diaries are received 

 in the General Manager's office di- 

 rect from each fire patrolman, who 

 mails it in a ready addressed envel- 

 ope, and each man's record is kept 

 separately. At the end of the season 

 a statement showing the time which 

 the man has spent actually patrol- 

 ling his beat watching for fires and 

 the time spent on other work per- 

 taining to fire protection, is made. 



Duties of Patrolmen. 



During the season of 1914 (a nor- 

 mal season) it was found that fifty 

 percent, of the men's time was used 

 on actual fire patrol, and the remain- 

 ing fifty percent, on other fire pro- 

 tection work. The latter consisted 

 of cleaning right of way, cutting 

 brush, filling water barrels on 

 bridges, etc.. and cleaning around 

 wooden buildings, culverts, plat- 

 forms, and other structures liable to 

 destruction by fire. Each man is 

 provided with special equipment, 

 consisting of shovels, water pails, 

 and in some cases a portable tele- 

 phone set, which he carries on his 



machine. 



Prairie and building fire-protection 

 is also covered^ 



I might add that the work on the 

 Canadian Northern Railway in this 

 connection has been largely experi- 

 mental, there being no precedent for 

 handling forest fire protection by 

 any railway along such lines as we 

 now have in effect. 



