Government Forest Work 23 



A- A small fire may spread into a conflagration, and 

 fires, matches, and burning tobacco should be used as 

 carefully in the forest as they are in the home. Care- 

 lessness in this respect may mean the loss of lives, 

 homes, stock, and forage, and of a vast amount of 

 timber which belongs equally to all citizens. 



# Fires may start in a region remote from supplies 

 and water and reach vast proportions before a party 

 of fire fighters can get to the scene, no matter how 

 promptly the start is made. By far the best plan, 

 therefore, is to prevent fires rather than to depend 

 upon fighting them once they start. This subject has 

 been given the most earnest attention by the Forest 

 Service. During the danger season the main attention 

 of supervisors and rangers is devoted to preventing 

 fires. Extra men are employed, the forests are sys- 

 tematically patrolled, and a careful lookout is main- 



# tained from high points. Roads and trails are being 

 built so that all parts of the forests may be quickly 

 reached. Tools and food for fire fighters are stored 

 at convenient places. The ranger stations and look- 



, out points are connected with the offices of the super- 

 visors by telephone, so that men may be quickly 

 assembled to fight dangerous fires which the patrol- 

 men can not subdue alone. 



During recent fire seasons the Air Service of the 

 Army and the Forest Service have cooperated to some 

 extent in the experimental use of the airplane as a 

 supplement to the lookout system in the prompt 

 detection of forest fires. Flying over the forest, the air- 

 plane scans the country for the tiny wisp of smoke 

 which denotes the outbreak. The alarm is then wire- 

 lessed to the nearest fire-fighting headquarters, from 

 which men are dispatched immediately. A patrol 

 from the air is especially important immediately 

 , following electrical storms and during periods when 



"many fires send up a smoke screen that renders fire 

 detection from stationary lookouts temporarily ineffec- 

 tive. When fires get large a reconnaissance from the 

 air made by Forest Service observers is a very useful 



* method of securing desired information. 



