Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-19
RANGERS HAVE
HARD BATTLE
FOREST FIRES KEEP MEN IN
RESERVE BUSY
ERNEST 3. LONG MAKES HARD
RIDE TO SCENE OF TROUBLE
Thousands of Acres Swept by Flames
During Week of Great Heat
In Southern Call
fornIa

Impelled by nothing but a sense OF
duty to the forest service of the gov
ernment and by an inborn love of the
forests, Ernest B. Long, deputy super
visor of the reserves of Southern Cali
fornia, abandoned his plans for va
cation at q moments notice, Wednes-
day, and rode seventy-hve miles with
out resting, in order to join a group
of men fighting fire in Bear canyon, d
branch of the San Gabriel.
Long has served valiantly for nine
days in a fight against fire in the
region of Mount Pacifico, and had just
been notified by telephone that he
could take a few days rest when he
looked from the door of ranger s
cabin near Shoemakers, on the desert
side of the San Gabriel range, and
saw huge clouds of smoke toward
Barley Flats and Mount Islip. He hur-
ried to the telephone again and was
connected with the office of the de-
partment in Los Angeles. They told
him thare was a fire in the vicinity OF
Cold Brook camp, in the north fork
of the San Gabriel, and that it was
beyond the control of the men there
Supervisor Charlton had gone there
and there were a number of other
rangers, among them James V. Seamer
of Cold Brook camp district, James
Stanchfield of the Pasadena territory
R. H. Hiett of Azusa, Iva Reid of Mon
rovia and Thomas Sloane of Glendora
That was all. There were no orders
to go, but Long did not hesitate. Tho
forests of Barley and the two Pine
Flats, and in fact of the whole region
west of the north fork to the fire
breaks around Mount Wilson north tc
Mount Pacifico, were exposed to the
flames, and Long loved them all, With
out any other thought he went to the
corral, chose the strongest and fresh
est pony there and threw on the
saddle. In ten minutes he had pro-
visions and grain tied behind and was
off for a long, hard ride over the
mountain trails to the scene of the fire
He encountered several obstacles on
the way and for several miles rode
across the edge of a district burned
few days before wherein all trails had
been obliterated. But he knows the
mountains thoroughly, besides he was
guided by a literal pillar of fire by
night and a pillar of cloud by day." un'
til he reached the spot. Without rest
and only a hurried breakfast, he f1une
himself into the fray Friday morning
With the others, he Is still facing tht
flames in a desperate, but thus fal
unsuccessful, attempt to stay the hre
On the accompanying map are shoWr
the burned areas in the Southern Cali
fornia reserves. Although the spots
appear small in the map, 1t must be
remembered the district presented
there embraces thousands of square
miles of territory and that every acre
burned means an immense loss to the
region about 1t and indirectly to all OF
this end Of the state. Water supply
depends directly on forest conservation
In addition to this, the losses In the
fires of the Cleveland reserve, in Sar
Diego county, in the Tejunga neigh
borhood west of Gleason mountain, an5
in the vicinity of Oxnard have swept
away many ranches and houses, and
MANY hundreds of acres of crops. The
actual loss in timber has not beer
great, although there were some loss II
the Cleveland reserve fire, and many
young trees are being burned In tht
San Gabriel canyon fire that is still
raging.