Arizona republican., 1921-11-02
FIGHTING FIRE FROM THE AIR

was not a great ueai nlSueT lnan the average annual loss. Besides this. whole towns have been wiped out by forest fires, and many persons killed.
 The actual mature standing timber. which might otherwise be cut, is a small part of what forest fires de- stroy. It does it's greatest damage in areas which have been cut, and are being overgrown with small trees. These small trees, which should form the lumber supply of 50 years hence, grow so thickly that fire, once well started, rages through them as through dry grass. By these cut-over fires the reproduction of our forests over great areas has been prevented. Moreover, a ground fire burns up the soil to such an extent that sometimes the area could not be reforested arti- ficially. There are great areas in this country which are almost denuded of soil, exposing the rocky skeleton of the earth and supporting nothing but low brush and a few saplings
 The great value of the airplane, as so far developed, is in making prompt discovery of forest fires. Everything depends upon catching them while they are young. The forest service heretofore has relied for this upon lookouts, who communicate with headquarters by telephone. The look out is stationed on a high mountain throughout the forest fire season. when he sees a column of smoke he is able, with the help of a compass and a map of the forest, to locate it approximately and send the informa- tion to forest headquarters. But fires starting in deep canyons are often invisible to him until they have at tained considerable size. Every hour counts. A fire that covered few square yards in the morning may be several square miles in size by noon. The lookout is especially handicapped when there are old fires burning in the vicinity and a smoke cloud hangs over the whole region. He cannot see the flame and a new smoke col umn is lost in the general fog.
 AirpIanes Successful
 The aerial observer flying thou sands of feet above the earth can see into every cranny of ASnd can de- tect a tiny flame that v ould neces- sarily be invisible to a lookout. In Oregon in 1919 the aerial patrol was credited with the first discovery of 50 per cent of the forest fires.
 The interesting phase of fire con- trol by airplane is that it might be developed into a means of fighting fires. When a fire has been discov- cred the next problem is to get men and tools to it. This must be done in most cases by pack train. A fire is often discovered several days travel from headquarters. and is almost be- yond control before it can be reached. The men fight 1t blindly, hoping they maye be able to restrain the advanc- ing wall of flame until rain comes to their aid.
 If some method of extinguishing these small fires from the air as soon as they are discovered should be per fected, it would be of almost incal- culable value. In fact, it might solve the forest fire problem. It is believed that this could be done, in many ln- stances, by the use of gas bombs, but no serious effort has been made to work out a method.
 It would obviously be of the great est value if planes could be used to rush men and tools to the scene of fires. This is impossible now because there are no landing fields in the na- tional forests. Yet in many of them there are great bare mountain tops and plateaus which could be equipped and used for the purpose. If the sup plies and men could not be brought directly to the fire, they might never theless be brought within few miles of it, and hours or days saved.
 This forest fire problem is one Of the many which might be solved but for the curious inertia which lies upon all of our institutions. The timber that might be saved by the use of airplanes would pay for them many times over. But the air service feels that it cannot afford to give planes to the forest service, and the forest service capnot afford any of its own. and congress is trying to patch its political fences by program of econ omy. So the woods burn on.