20 MISC. PUBLICATION 290. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



During the danger season forest supervisors and rangers concen- 

 trate their efforts to prevent fires and to catch, while still small, 

 those that do start. Extra men are employed, the forests are syste- 

 matically patrolled, and a careful lookout is maintained from towers 

 and stations on high points. 



Roads and trails are being built so that all parts of the forests 

 may be quickly reached. The ranger stations and lookouts are 

 connected with the offices of the supervisors by telephone, so that 

 men may be quickly assembled to fight fires which the patrolmen 

 cannot subdue alone. 



Figure 15. — Using his alidade the guard has located a forest fire. He is reporting it by 

 telephone to the nearest ranger station, Coeur d'Alene National Forest. Idaho. 



Tools and food supplies for fire fighters are stored at convenient 

 places. Service of supply is also being augmented by a new develop- 

 ment in fire-fighting technique — the use of aircraft. The Forest 

 Service owns no airplanes, but charters them from commercial con- 

 cerns when need arises. 



Experiments have resulted in development of standard methods 

 of dropping equipment and supplies to fire fighters from airplanes. 

 Special packaging and the use of simple parachutes constructed in 

 a few minutes from easily obtainable material have made this possi- 

 ble. Valuable time is thus saved in supplying ground crews oper- 

 ating far from supply bases. 



Aircraft are used also in scouting and patrolling large fires, and 

 to aid in detection during periods of extremely low visibility. The 

 system of lookouts is far more effective, however, for general fire 

 detection. 



