9 Miscellaneous Circular 19, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 
destroyed by them. The indirect damage from forest fires in this 
region is tremendous, however, and strikes at the very root of the 
prosperity of the intermountain region by threatening the perma- 
nence of water supphes so necessary to agriculture and to the life 
of cites and towns, to say nothing of the losses in timber and the 
destruction of forage resources. In order to combat these fires a 
large force of men is required. If the public would realize its re- 
sponsibility for forest fires, nearly half of them could be prevented, 
and the Federal Government would be relieved of the burden of 
maintaining a fire-fighting organization of such proportions as is now 
necessary. At the same time, the damage done would be greatly 
decreased. \a 
THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRES. 
= 
Down the city street comes the wild clang of a gong and the roar 
of heavy wheels. Nearer and nearer come the trucks at full speed, 
while automobiles and pedestrians scatter before them. Everything 
gives way to the fire department as it speeds to the fire. Perhaps we, 
too, hurry along with the crowd in the direction it has gone and watch 
the men as they work with the powerful engines, high ladders, and 
great streams of water to put out the flames that are destroying the 
stores and homes men have labored hard to build and the merchan- 
dise they have struggled to acquire. “Good they got here when 
they did,’ we say to our neighbors standing near, “or the whole 
thing would have burned up.” “Must have lost a thousand dollars 
as it 1s,’ Someone replies. 
Similar scenes on a smaller scale are common in towns and villages, 
where the clanging of the fire bell arouses the volunteer fire fighters. 
They rush out the hose and hurry to the scene of the fire, bending 
every energy to prevent the flames from destroying valuable property. 
Smoke appears back in the mountains, billowing up over the 
distant ridges and spreading hazily across the sky. Who gets ex- 
cited? Who worries about the damages being done back there? 
Very few. “Just a brush fire—a few worthless trees maybe,” we 
say to our neighbor. ‘“ We have always had brush fires. They 
can’t be prevented, and they don’t really do any harm. Of course, 
those big forest fires in the Northwest are a different thing. But 
these—these don’t amount to anything.” | 
Back in the mountains, however, are the men who know better. 
A lone lookout in his lttle cabin on some high barren mountain 
peak, incessantly scanning the country, sees the tiny, far-away wisp 
of smoke. He telephones to others. The fire is definitely located, 
and in a few minutes fire fighters on horseback are off across the 
canyons and mountains to the fire. No clanging of gongs here, no 
speed and rush, no spectacular thrills, no admiring throngs. It is 
just simple hard work with axe and shovel out in the distant moun- 
tains, putting out a fire about which few people care. It cost 
nobody money to clothe these hills with brush or to put those trees 
there. Nobody expects to get much money out of those forests. 
heir destruction seems to hit nobody’s pocket book. But is it really 
true that nobody’s pocketbook is hit? Let us look further. 
i 
