AO, 
—— 
14 Miscellaneous Circular 19, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 
where, however, are fire detection and suppression organizations com- 
petent to handle effectively the fires starting in the region. In 1910, 
when the organization was young, in a season of extreme fire hazard, 
384 fires burned over 193,742 acres. Nine years later came another 
hot, dry year, and an area of approximately the same extent was 
burned over, 192,888 acres. There were, however, 704 fires to cope 
with, nearly double the number that occurred in 1910. The year 
1909 was an easy year, with only 152 fires and only 4,455 acres 
burned The year 1922 was not a bad fire season either. The fire- 
fighting organization was much more effective, however, and 542 fires 
covered an area of only 3,652 acres. There were over three times as 
many fires as in 1909, but a smaller area was burned. The organiza- 
tion is doing good work, is improving every year, and is a powerful 
factor in reducing fire losses. 
Fic. 9.—Putting out a camp fire left by careless campers. 
But such things cost money. - Figure 8 shows how the cost per acre 
burned over each year has risen from 1909 to the present time. The 
area burned over is being reduced each year, but at considerable ex- 
pense. Still, so long as the fires are started, there is no other way 
by which protection can be achieved. If the human element could 
be done away with, or even greatly reduced, matters would be very 
much improved, for it is the fires caused by human beings that give 
the fire-fighting forces the most trouble. Lightning fires start fre- 
quently upon high ridges or places where isolated dead trees stand 
out boldly. Such places are easily seen by the lookouts, and fires do 
not readily spread on the rock tops of high ridges. Fires started by 
human beings are at first almost always hidden away along some trail 
or stream in the canyon bottoms or at the foot of slopes where the 
fire can quickly assume a large size. 
The most logical thing to do is to get rid of fires started by human 
beings. Campers start the greatest number of man-caused fires. 
They must learn to be careful with fire in the mountains if the de- 
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