100 THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



A EUEEY CLEARED FIRE LINE IN THE SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS 



The ideal fire line is a completely cleared strip, from which are removed not only the 

 trees and brush, but also all ground debris down to the mineral soil. Such a line is especially 

 necessary wherever fire will run swiftly and it may not be possible to reach the fire promptly 

 with fighting appliances. A conspicuous example of the necessity of such fire lines and of 

 the service rendered by them is found in the chaparral zone of the mountains in southern 

 California, where the chaparral cover is of great importance in protecting the local water- 

 sheds. The area is large, the mountains are rough and difficult to travel, and fire runs with 

 great rapidity. The government is therefore building extensive trails for patrol to prevent 

 fires and supplementing them by wide, cleared fire lines to stop any fires that may start. 

 Photo from Henry S. Graves, Chief U. S. Forest Service. 



largely put out through the crews work- 

 ing under the forest officers. Those fires 

 in the inaccessible areas were extin- 

 guished finally by the aid of timely rain 

 and snow storms. While the aggregate 

 loss of life and property was large and 

 the cost of fighting the fires about a mil- 

 lion dollars, I do not hesitate to state 

 that if it had not been for the heroic 

 and efficient work of the forest officers 

 many millions of dollars' worth of public 

 and private property would have been 

 destroyed, and probably many lives 

 would have been lost. I cannot com- 

 mend too highly the self-sacrificing work 

 of the local forest officers, who toiled 

 day and night, week after week, risking 

 their lives to save the forests. 



The reports show that there were over 

 4,000 fires in the national forests during 



the season. Most of them were small 

 and were promptly extinguished by the 

 forest officers. Only about 15 per cent 

 of the fires were responsible for the 

 great losses. These occurred chiefly in 

 the inaccessible regions where they could 

 not be reached quickly because of the 

 lack of roads and trails, or in areas in- 

 adequately patrolled. The greatest dam- 

 age was done by the great fire of August 

 20 in northern Idaho. Many fires were 

 burning at that time, but nearly all of 

 them were under control and would 

 shortly have been extinguished had it 

 not been for a terrific hurricane which 

 developed and swept all fires beyond 

 control. Within 24 hours there was 

 practically a continuous fire for a dis- 

 tance of over 100 miles. 



The total area burned over during the 



