Evening star., 1909-05-23

an ordinary case. no bigger than a soap box.
filled with dynamite, personal property of the
ranger. former miner, and long since treas
ured for this very emergency
He took out straw colored waxed cylinders
resembling six-inch sections of broomsticks;
these he fitted with exploders and copper wires
and sank them twenty feet apart into three-foot
holes, bored into the ground with crowbars
about fifteen feet down the slope on the fire
side of the hill Then he connected his wires
one hundred yards away with brown box
fitted with p1unger, and as the first of the on
rushing flames Tapped even with the crest of the
hill he grasped the handle of the battery and
set off the spark.
The earth lurched under mems feet A wave
of compressed air struck their faces. deafen-
ing, rumbling thud crashed out of the bowels of
the earth and the very mountainside arose
dirt, stones, trees boulders-and hurled itself
in one great sheet directly at the flames AS if
the valley below, mass of black trees sending
up pillars of white smoke to mix with the yel-
low fumes of the dreadful compound.
The Fire that Can't Be Put Out
THERE is one forest fire. however. that
neither ranger nor an army of a thousand
men nor thousand tons of dynamite can stop
within reasonable time.-the pine forest fire
ablaze in baby hurricane Tall. open. one of
these forests. consisting practically of so much
will fairly explode into flame with swish and
a roar like gigantic waterfall, fire running
through it with the speed of an express train
Trees more than five hundred yards in advance
of the flames suddenly burst into fire fire of
this sort will run ten. twenty. miles day by
leaps and bounds, now gaining headway on
level, now falling off on its course up or down
mountainside.
The ranger who discovers this kind of fire has
nothing to do but to save himself. If he can
reach a stream in time. of course. the fire would
pass harmleSsly over him Otherwise. his one
chance is to = run the fire.: that is, to pick
lane where the flames are least thick and dash
through it,-a difficult and hazardous but by
no means impossible, means of escape, provid-
ing man does not lose his wits
Wrapping his head in coat or bag or
blanket in such manner that he can still use his
eyes, the ranger dashes toward the burning
trees at top speed. Half choked, half blinded
he gropes and falls and stumbles ever onward
pausing only now and then to bring his mouth
to the ground for breath of air Livid sparks
from twigs fall on him At times his flesh liter
ally creeps with the heat radiated from above
But so intensely ferocious is fire of this sort
that its interior is full of pockets of fresh air
and as long as the ranger keeps his nerve and
avoids actual contact with the flames he IS sure
to run the gauntlet successfully for one hundred
hundred and fifty yards. where he may
sink to the ground exhausted, breathing deeply
of the fresh air that fans him from all sides on
its way to be drawn into the fire.
The ranger may wait in peace: for there IS
nothing on earth left for him to do Long be-
fore he could send an alarm the fire itself has
attended to this. and men in adjoining dis
tricts dozen or more miles away are at work
preparing for the onrush of the conflagration
even though nothing except sudden change
of wind or heavy rain could check its
course
All is waste and wilderness where the fire has
swept. For time the pail hangs thick and the
sun peers like red ball on the desolation
Then the smoke clears. Trees, still sending up
wreaths of it, stand black and naked, rearing
charred limbs toward the blue sky Hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of valuable tim
Der that might have been converted into SO
many more valuable homes and factories, has
been wiped within a few hours from the face of
the earth Not tree, not limb, not root
not seeding, not an insect remains alive to
tell the tale of the forest fire fighter who failed
in the wilderness.