GOVERNMENT FOREST WORK 33 
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 remote region and reach vast 
proportions before a party of fire fighters can get to 
the scene, no matter how promptly the start is made. 
F-223755 
FIGURE 18.—On the way to battle. Fire fighters must 
often camp for days at the front when combating a fire 
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 forest supervisors and 
rangers is devoted to preventing fires and to catching 
while still small those that do start. Extra men are 
employed, the forests are systematically patrolled, and 
a careful lookout is maintained 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 
