Fighting Forest Fires

FIGHTING Forest Fires Modern Means of Transportation and Communication Help, but Only Experienced, Courageous, Enduring Man-power Can Halt the Flames

By CHARLES E. RANDALL U. S. Forest Service IF YOU motored through any part of the 150 national forests this summer . . . as you might easily have done, since 55,000,000, hikers, sportsmen, motorists and other visitors were expected by the forest service at the start of the season . . . you passed along some portion of the approximately 50,000 miles of roads, highways or truck trails penetrating these vast areas. Valuable for motorists, since they lead to delightful camp grounds, secluded fishing streams, breath-taking scenic spots, these roads, nevertheless, serve a sterner purpose. They are the forest traffic arteries which carry men and equipment when flames come roaring through the timber.

On your trip, you no doubt caught glimpses . . . perhaps even visited . . . more than one lookout cabin perched high on some crag or atop a slim steel tower rising over the green tops of the trees. You saw cleared lines between heavy stands of brush, noticed that highly inflammable debris and brush on the forest floor had been cleared out for many feet on either side of the road you traveled. Perhaps you heard an airplane speeding high above the rugged terrain, or saw a radio antenna strung over the ship-shape grounds and small buildings of a ranger station.

You were then seeing evidence of the modern facilities used in fighting forest fires by the United States forest service.

Every year, forest fires destroy approximately 40,000,000 acres of unprotected timberland in the United States. On national forest lands, however, which total about 170,000,000 acres, the loss is rarely over 500,000 acres per year; in 1935 less than 200,000 were burned. Here are some facts that show the steadily increasing efficiency of modern forest fire control as practiced by the forest service: In 1935 about 10,000 fires were reported in national forests, compared to an average or 8000 over the years 1931 to 1934. However, these fires burned only 178,000 acres, compared to an average of some 440,000 acres in the previous four years. This, too, is important: there were only 156 "extra-period" fires during 1935, compared to an average of 270 during the period from 1931 to 1934. An "extra-period" fire is one which is still out of control after 10 a. m. of the day following its discovery. How are forest fires fought? Three factors are paramount in the fire control setup: prompt detection of fires when they break out; quick communication by

NOVEMBER, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

telephone and radio; and rapid transportation of men and equipment to the battle line. The essence of successful fire fighting is speed. Lookouts spot the "smokes" and accurately determine their location. Word is then flashed either by telephone or radio to a central dispatcher's office and a "smoke-chaser" or a crew of men are rushed to the scene over truck, horse or foot trails. Completely equipped fire trucks are maintained at many of the ranger stations, guard stations and CCC camps, ready for the call.

Man power is drawn from the many part-time workers hired by the forest service as guards and fire fighters during the fire season. The advent of the CCC, however, brought the establishment of some 500 camps in the national forests, thereby providing an additional and effective source of trained crews to aid in the battle against forest blazes. In the past three years CCC boys have spent over 2,175,000 man days fighting fire under forest service supervision, have built 56,858 miles of truck trails, more than 10,000 miles of foot and horse trails. They have cleared dangerous fire hazards from 1,202,000 acres of forest land and from 44,000 miles of road and trail-sides.

Forest rangers say that the best way to stop a forest fire is not to let it start; but failing that, the next best thing is to get to it and close in on it as quickly as possible. Most fires are controlled because they are caught quickly. When they are not caught in time, a long, gruelling battle ensues, with all men and equipment available thrown into the fight. In these great fires lives are lost, men are seriously hurt, and millions of feet of timber are burned before the flames are halted. When fires are deep in mountainous "back country," where there are few or no roads and trails, getting men and supplies into the area is a tough job. In the last few years, with the aid of CCC members, the forest service has completed a number of emergency landing fields for aircraft, which, by carrying men and cquipment, save many valuable hours.

Airplanes have proved practical for reconnaissance and for emergency transportation. Also, foresters are constantly experimenting with their use in the parachute delivery of additional supplies to fire-fighting crews on the grounds, and in the dropping of water, chemical mixtures and bombs to retard the progress of the flames.

But the infantry of the fire-fighting armies is still composed of the men with the grub hoes and shovels, who battle the advancing flames on the ground. They use whatever the scientist and the technician can devise to speed on their work and make it more efficient, such as tractors especially designed to construct fire lines in a hurry, specially adapted tools and portable pumps. But manpower, endurance, experience and courage are still the deciding factor in successful fight against forest fires.

What causes forest fires? The carelessness of people as a rule. These fire starters may be the folks who left their campfire unextinguished, who tossed away a lighted cigarette, or knocked out the live coals of a pipe into the tinderlike forest duff underfoot. They may be those local people who sincerely but mistakenly believe that burning the woods annually is a good thing; farmers who neglect precautions when clearing brush; loggers disposing of slash; or railroads which fail to maintain adequate spark arrestors.

Lightning is the principal non-human cause of fires. During hot, dry periods, when the fire hazard in the forest is at peak, crackling electric storms annually kindle hundreds of forest blazes. There have been several instances where more than a hundred fires have been started by lightning bolts in the course of a single thunderstorm.

Outside of the few "bad factors," each season . . . fires which, through a combination of freaky climatic conditions, inaccessible terrain and loss of time in detection, get out of control and spread over tremendous areas . . . the forest service, with its men, equipment, and experience, throttles most of the fires in the national forests while they are still young. However, there still remain disastrous losses from forest fires, and it is significant that 90 per cent of them occur on forest lands without organized protection.

What is needed in the future is an extension of fire prevention and control systems into unprotected timber areas, and widespread education concerning the prevention of forest fires. Local people and city folk alike are guilty. The responsibility of cutting down forest fire losses rests not only on the forest service but on every individual, organization and institution in the nation. If fire is kept out of the forests, new timber can be grown, formerly devastated areas brought back to productivity, local communities and business dependent up-on forest industries revived, recreational facilities made available to millions of people, fishing and hunting improved, and enormous losses in property and timber values cut materially. The goal is worth while.