10 FOREST FIRES 



a permit to set a fire in the open during the dry months. 

 Unfortunately this law (page 17, Sec. 24), which has a refer- 

 endum clause, has not been adopted by all the towns of the 

 Commonwealth. 



THE RAILROADS 



The number of fires set by the railroads is greater than 

 from any other known cause. Fires may be set by the 

 workmen in burning ties or rubbish along the right of way, 

 or by coals dropped from the ash pans of locomotives, or by 

 sparks from locomotive stacks. Fires set by workmen or 

 by coals from ash pans are invariably the result of pure 

 carelessness. There is no excuse for either. 



The setting of fires by sparks from locomotives is a more 

 complicated matter. The conditions under which a locomo- 

 tive boiler must do its work make it impossible to prevent 

 entirely the emission of sparks. The size of the firebox is 

 limited to meet the conditions of locomotion. On the other 

 hand, a great amount of coal must be consumed in order to 

 make enough steam to draw the train. In order to burn the 

 requisite amount of coal in a small firebox, the draft is forced 

 by turning the exhaust from the cylinders into the front end 

 or smoke box directly under the smoke stack. The draft 

 thus created is so strong that small pieces of coal are often 

 lifted from the fire and carried through the boiler into the 

 front end. Here they are caught up by the exhaust and shot 

 through the stack many feet into the air. If a strong wind 

 is blowing they may be carried a considerable distance from 

 the track before they fall. Many of these burning frag- 

 ments are extinguished by contact with the exhaust steam, 

 or are cooled in the air to a harmless cinder. But occasionally 

 the larger and heavier ones which fall near the track are still 

 capable of setting a fire if inflammable matter is near at 

 hand. The insertion of a netting or spark arrester in the 

 front end stops the largest sparks, and delays the passage of 

 many others until they are harmless, but no spark arrester 

 has ever been invented that will stop all sparks. If the net- 

 ting is kept in repair, a fire will rarely or never be set at a 

 distance of more than fifty feet from the center of the track. 



