TIMBEK GROWING AND LOGGING' PEACTICE IN CALIFORNIA 21 
is being done. The principal fire suppression measures that have 
proved successful are : 
A fvo'perly equipped patrol following trains. — In the case of one 
company, 144 fires clue to railroad engines started along parts of the 
right of way where clearing had not been done. Part of this was in 
slash, part in virgin timber. Patrols after the train confined all 
these fires to small areas. Other companies use the same method, 
usually more or less spasmodically, though it must be obvious that 
continuity is the essential if disastrous fires are to be avoided. 
The equipment of donkey engines icith pumps., hose., and fire- 
fighting tools. — On national forest cuttings where this is made a con- 
tract requirement, serious fires starting from donkey engines have 
been greatly reduced. Fire-fighting equipment at machines should 
be kept in a special place and used only for fires. There is a serious 
danger that shovels and axes will become scattered on the logging 
job and will not be available when needed.^ 
Placing responsibility far initiating action on fires. — On all but 
the smaller operations, a camp fire warden is advisable. He should 
be commissioned as a deputy State fire warden, and should be given 
responsibility for organizing the camps for fire control, teaching the 
men their duties on fires, enforcing regulations about smoking in 
the woods, care of spark arresters, dumping hot ashes, building bon- 
fires, etc. He should be a man of intelligence and energy and be 
accustomed to handling men. He should be specifically charged with 
fire control activities on all risk areas and be free of other duties. 
In addition, some individual in each risk area should be designated 
to start action. At donkey engines this may be the engineer of fire- 
man ; in the woods, the hooktender ; along railroads, the patrolman, 
etc. The characteristic of logging fires from all causes is the long 
delay in attack owing to failure to fix responsibility for starting 
action. Practically all such fires occur where plenty of men and 
tools are available to put them out, but the tendency has been 
to take a chance that they will go out of themselves, which they 
seldom do. 
ADDITIONAL MEASURES 
It is too much to expect that this generallv adequate plan of special 
fire control will catch all fires while small. Human fallibility is ever 
a factor, as experience demonstrates ; and, despite all care, occasional 
extreme winds will result in large fires. What can reasonably be 
done to reduce to a minimum the danger of a conflagration ? Certain 
possibilities are fairly obvious, and are already in use on some oper- 
ations : 
To fall snags on cleared strips along the lines of special risk. — 
Particularly on cut-over lands snags are a great potential danger, 
since sparks fly from them for long distances and set fire in advance 
of the main fire. 
At the outer edge af cleared strips to maintain a fire Ihie cleaned 
to mineral soil and of sufficient width, usually a few feet, to stop 
fires that may be unattended for a time. 
5 Portable gasoline pumps have proved their value in controlling fires starting from 
donkey engines. They are particularly useful in extinguishing tniming chunks, snags, and 
logs, and thus making a prolonged patrol unnecessary. 
