Apr. is, 1925 Use of Liability Ratings in Forest Fire Protection 
755 
Table XVI .—Number of fires by elapsed time groups, for special risk fires in all types 
PRIVATE LANDS 
For purposes of rating liabilities, no 
consideration has been given to values 
on private lands within or adjacent to 
forest boundaries, because the cost of 
protecting such values should be met 
by the owners. It may in some cases 
be desirable to protect timber values 
on private lands, because of the possi¬ 
bility of the land being acquired later 
by the public, through exchange or in 
some other way. In such cases, ar¬ 
rangements should be made whereby 
the owner pays the cost of protection 
either now or at the time when the 
land is transferred. 
In computing special liabilities for 
any forest units, due allowance should 
of course be made for special risk fires 
originating on adjacent or included 
lands which if not controlled may 
spread to the protected lands. Fires 
starting on a railroad right of way 
running through a forest, for instance, 
are as much a source of danger to the 
forest as if the right of way were 
owned by the public. Where, how¬ 
ever, the right of way is so isolated b'y 
fire lines or otherwise that no fires ever 
have escaped from it on to the pro¬ 
tected lands, fires occurring on the 
railroad land would not be counted in 
computing the liability. 
FIRE PLAN RECONNAISSANCE 
To apply the method of rating lia¬ 
bilities outlined in the preceding pages, 
or any other method, for that matter, 
it will be necessary to make some kind 
of a survey of the lands and resources 
that are to be protected. For a pre¬ 
liminary rating, this can be done in a 
rather extensive way, without a great 
amount of detailed field work, but such 
a rating should be followed, eventually, 
by a more accurate and detailed one 
based upon an intensive survey. In the 
meantime, more accurate and com¬ 
plete records should be kept of all fires 
that occur, in order to afford a better 
basis for rating liabilities. 
DATA TO BE OBTAINED 
The survey, whether extensive or 
intensive, should result in the follow¬ 
ing information for each forest and 
protection unit (or ranger district): 
1. A map, showing the location and 
extent of all areas of each class of risk, 
together with the hour control effective 
for each area, under the existing condi¬ 
tions. The amount of detail used in 
classification of risks will depend upon 
the intensity of the survey. 
2. Statistical data regarding the 
areas subject to risk, classified as shown 
on the map. These data may be rep¬ 
resented in tabular form, somewhat as 
follows: 
