Canadian Forestry Journal, May, ipi6. 



547 



A Voice From the Forest 



Fire Fig'hting Requires Aid of Mechanical Apparatus but Good 



Trails are the First Requisite. 



February 15, 1916, 

 Cranbrook, B.C. 

 To Editor, Canadian Forestry 

 Journal : 



I have read the article in the Can- 

 adian Forestry Journal, with refer- 

 ence to a portable gasoline forest 

 fire fighting pump, by Mr. H. C. 

 Johnson, Fire Inspector, Board of 

 Railway Commissioners. It is a 

 step in the right direction. At the 

 present moment, however, it could 

 not be used to advantage in the ma- 

 jority of localities because of the 

 lack of trails, so we come down to 

 the old point, viz., trails and more 

 trails and as Mr. Johnson justly 

 states in his article, good and reli- 

 able topographical maps. There are 

 very few such maps covering forest- 

 ed areas in this country, Canada. 

 Given good trails and the construc- 

 tion of artificial water supply where 

 natural supply fails — which is not a 

 very difficult or serious matter — 

 then mechanical apparatus would be 

 a godsend to the men in the field. I 

 have always thought that the pre- 

 sent policy is very haphazard in re- 

 gard to "fighting"' forest fire. There 

 are all kinds of schemes for discover- 

 ing fires, but they do not appear to 

 have evolved many methods for ex- 

 tinguishing them. A fire starts at a 

 given point, the wind is in a given 

 direction, and if a man has only got 

 a map of the locality which is relia- 

 ble, he would soon then be able to 

 have a general plan of campaign, cut 

 and dried. Given the above data he 

 can then make a fair guess in what 

 direction the fire will run. As a 

 rule, there are no reliable maps, 

 there is some one man who happens 



there are no known trails, unless 

 to be around who knows the country 

 and carries such knowledge bottled 

 up in his head, and so time is wasted 

 trying to stop the fire at no particu- 

 lar vantage point, until probably 

 hours, and days, in some cases, 

 afterwards when some one has had 

 a look over the ground. This van- 

 tage point should be known before- 

 hand, and a concentration made 

 there, with a line of retreat to the 

 next defence, already known, in 

 case of a sudden fall back. 



"Not Enough Action." 

 With good maps, artificial water 

 supply where natural supplies fail, 

 as I have said before, not a very 

 difficult or costly matter, and some 

 attempt at organization, a portable 

 fire pump would be a very useful 

 and valuable weapon in the hands 

 of the men in the field. There is too 

 much talk as to what should be done 

 and too little action taken in the 

 field. What is wanted is more of 

 this talk put into action. The aver- 

 age forester seems to think that 

 when a decent map and estimate is 

 made that all is done. Both are ex- 

 tremely useful, but do not go far 

 enough. Fire wardens are asked to 

 send in reports giving hazards, prob- 

 able points of danger, advocate such 

 and such trails, all of which is 

 usually squashed at head office, very 

 neatly filed, and the matter dropped. 

 This information should be marked 

 on a plan, the wind currents assum- 

 ed in the varying directions and a 

 cut and dried plan of campaign 

 agreed upon for the different situ- 

 ations in relation to the wind cur- 

 rents. With fairly accurate plans 



