The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-31
PERIL IN The FOREST FIRE.
A CONSTANT DANGER WHICH
MENACES LIFE OUT WEST.
Water Useless to Fight Great Gonna sra'
ton Even n Enough We're Lett In
the Streams-TwO Famous Fires Which
Left Miles OF Country Desolate.

OF the lDllcu soldlcS' NNe'A''J
is burned, it means that every spear OF
grass. every tree. every wooden Duilo'ns
il turned into ashes Even roots of the
trees and decayed vegetation two and three
feet beneath the surface are consumed
and the earth itself is covered with mass
of embers. This is what happens when
prairie or forest fire occurs.
When the white settlers in America oc-
c,,ped only few miles OF territory rum
ming back from the coast line. and the
Indians hunted, fought and roamed from
the hills of New England to the great forests
or the Pacific Coast. II was an unwr1tten
law that the Use of the flint and steel in any
part where flames might spread beyond
control, meant death to the warrior or
s1uaw who struck light. for the action
might result in turning villages into des-
sert. destroying crops and tepees ana
driving tn. wild animals. which formed
the food supply. far beyond the reach OF
the arrow
Even to-day. TN" greatest dread OF the
hlnberman, the hunter and the farmer in
the newly settled parts of America Is from
these fires. Only the man who has fought
them knows the rapidly with which they
.nread and the ruin they will cause in
few hours
As the weeks pass on and the sun rises
and sets withou, a rain cloud formngn the
skv. nature becomes SO dry that it seems
as if the sap had evaporated from the grain
stalks and the tree branches. The fur
rows of earth turned up 10y the plough
crumble into fine powder, for there Is not
enough moisture to hold the particles to-
pether and the dust rises into the air in
IL, H.. -;,1ly lpn nj,
into it. Even in the shaded woodland
the heated air absorbs the natural mois-
ture Bushes rooted deeply are so dry
that their branches snap off when broken
like dead twigs Touch lighted match
TO one and it blazes up as if coated with
petroleum. The bark of the trees loses
its freshness and hangs in strips. exposing
the white wood.
When an area of territory 100 or 500
miles in extent is deprived of rain for
a month or more of summer this is its con-
dition. From July 10 until near the middle
Of November in the year 1925 the people
in the Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick
raw no rain fall, and one afternoon in
October a fire started in the upper Mira
michi Valley. No one knows how. but
it was supposed a woodsman did not eA-
tingush the faggots on which he had cooked
his dinner
The first man who discovered it found
a space about 100 feet long and SO feet
wide in flames The fire was in a patch OF
bushes and young trees He alarmed
camp Of woodchoppers about two miles dis
tant. On returning with them half an hour
later he found the fire had reached thcket
of pines and the flames were running along
their top branches. 1t had spread so rapidly
that thousand men could not have arrested
its progress. The choppers were obliged
TO run for their lives TO escape not only
the flames but the dense smoke. A small
pond at the edge of the forest probably
saved them, as by crossing it they reached
the open country and spot where half a
mile of ploughed field kept the flames in
check.
The flames would literally shoot up the
outside of pine tree and in ten minutes
most of the branches would be ablaze. The
wood Of the trunk, filed with inf1anmable
sap, was converted into a mass of fire al
most as quickly. The heat from single
tree was so intense that objects thirty and
forty feet from it caught fire Immediately.
As in other forests Of this kind the ground
was covered with mixture of dead leaves
and other debris foot or more in thick
ness This burned like powder, and it was
discovered afterward that in many cases
roots five feet deep had been reduced to
ashes
When a single tree two or tire, feet in
thickness will bura to a skeleton in fifteen
minutes and ten thousand are on fire at
the same time faint idea can be gained
of the Miramich fire, as it is still called.
Every condition favored its spread, In
addition to the draught created by the
hot air meeting the cooler atmosphere
about il, strong breeze sprang up which
blew directly toward the Gulf of ST., Law
renee 1t forced the burning mass down
the valley AT the river bank the flames
nearly eapt across the narrow channel,
and thousands of burning embers ignited
timber on the other side.
Along swept the great conflagration,
turning everything to ashes in its path.
Several settlements in the woods were
abandoned lust in time to escape, although
the roar and cracking of the flames could
be heard threa miles distant. Animals and
birds confused and blinded by the noise,
smoke and heat, persisted by thousands,
though only carcaSses of such as deer and
bear were found afterward to show how
deadly had been the fire. The ! init was
only reached where the forest ended-a
stretch of open country skirted by salt
marsh Here was absolu tely nothing in
fammable, and the fire burned itself out,
For a month it smould cred in the burned
area, occasionally star ting up here and
there, then dying down for want Of material
to co nsune
|, reached the limit ton hours after being
discovered, and in that time had spread
ever territory eighty miles long and
TWENTY-FIVE miles wide, travelling at the
rate Of sight miles an hour, or as fast as a
horse goes az the usual road gait.
The town Of Hinckly lies in the SOUTH
eastern part of Minnesota The buildings
are ali new and most Of the stores OF brick.
Its population is about 700. Five years
ago another town of Hinckly stood in this
spot but not house stands Of the original
village to-day For an hour before the
train reaches it the passenger sees charred
stumps of trees every few feet amid the
growth Of bushes which covers the ground
The first Hinckly was laid ont in the middle
of tract of woodland nearly fifty miles
SQUARE Vi star:-a AZ lumber camp.
and was the centre of half a dozen hamletS
located in places where the trees had been
cut down in III" same forest.
A spark from a locomotive fell into a
nile Of dried leaves in the forest at a spot
about ten miles from Hinckly For four
months not "A drop Of rain had fallen in
al,