124 FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



days with warm winds followed, the surface became dry again, and the fires 

 that had been smouldering in the duff burned to the surface and on the 

 exposed mountain sides were soon beyond control again. 



We were coming into another period of extreme drought extending from 

 October 2d to October 26th with scarcely a drop of rain. At the same time 

 we were confronted with an increased danger because the hardwood leaves 

 had fallen and lay thick on the ground. They would catch fire as readily 

 as a waste paper basket and burn as rapidly. The recent rain had cleared the 

 atmosphere and checked the fires ; but now they were burning again and the 

 pall of smoke was as dense as before. Conditions were worse than at any 

 time during the year. Hunters in large numbers were roaming the woods, 

 and fires were started often from their carelessness. The smoke prevented 

 the discovery of such fires, and they burned for days and were beyond 

 control when discovered. Nearly every available man in the forest section 

 was employed to protect the woods. The fire, however, burned so deep in 

 the dry duff that it could not be put out. It could only be held by ditching 

 through the duff, often from two to three feet in depth, which is a slow 

 process. The leaves supplied so much fuel and the wind carried the fire 

 along so fast, especially on higher elevations where exposed, that men really 

 could do but little in checking the advancing flames, let alone controlling 

 them. It is difficult to imagine the great difficulty in fighting forest fires 

 under these conditions; but a reasonable comparison might be made with 

 that of a city fire department without water. They might as well have 

 tried to check fires in the city with axes and shovels as to control Adirondack 

 forest fires last October. This condition continued until rain came on 

 October 26th. 



As required by law the town firewardens report to the Chief Firewarden 

 at this office, on a blank supplied for that purpose, the date, extent, location, 

 damage, cause, cost of fighting and other information in regard to any fires 

 that burn over more than one acre in their respective towns. These reports 

 have been carefully compiled by the Chief Firewarden, and the following is 

 his summary of the forest fires in the Adirondack and Catskill counties for 

 1908, excluding all under an acre in extent. 



We have also classified the area and damages of these fires by causes. 

 This is a new aspect of the forest fire situation, but will doubtless be of value 

 in that it shows what were the most destructive causes the past year. 



