Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1921-10-21
FOREST SERVICE
COMP |LE:SFOREST
FIRE STATISTICS
More Than Half of ConfIa-
grations Caused by Care
lessness of Man; Light
ming Other Cause.

The local forest service OFFICE
has Just completed some Interest
ing forest fire statistics showing
that 81 per cent of the fires occur
ring on the national forests OF the
southwest during the past ten
wears were caused by mans care
lessness. All OF these fires, which
cost $4,000 to extlnguish, could
have been prevented had everyone
In the forests been careful not 10
start fires. The other 46 per cent
were caused by lightning and are
therefore not preventable.
Studies OF lightning fires have
shown that they are much more cas-
ily handled than man-caused fires
both because their occurrence can
be predicted and because they or
dinarily occur in lightning zones
and do not at first spread as fast
az nan-caused fires. Recognizing
these facts, the forest fire fight
ing organizations have been 80
formed as to handle these light
ming fires as efficiently as posi-
BILE.
The caused fires, however,
according to district forester Frank
C, PooIer, are giving the service
real concern. They can not be pre-
dicted. they may occur anywhere
where a careless person leaves n
fire or takes smoke and at any
time. day or night. Were they
eliminated entirely through care
with camp and other fires In the.
forest during the dry season, the
protection of the forests against
fire would be fairly simple. Fire
lookouts would have to be maintain
ed then only after dry thunder
showers. But the man-caused
fires make constant vigilance nee
essary during the dry seasons.
Besides being ever on the look
out for man-caused fires, the rang
ers are taking other steps to re-
duce the number of them. They
miss no opportunities in telling
campers and others on the nation
al forests to be careful with fires.
In addition, the laws providing
penalties for carelessness with fires
in the mountains are being strictly
enforced, as evidenced by the pros
ecution Of about fifty persons In
the southwest this year for care
lessness with fires.
There IL a good deal of rivalry
between the fire organizations of
the fourteen national forests In the
each trying to better its
own previous records and those of
other forests. The rangers and
fire guards are expected to be on
the way within twenty minutes af-
ter receiving reports of fires. This
time is given them In order to sad
die their horses and pack their
tools and supplies. This getaway
Is, of course, to be cut down as
much as possible.
The Tusayan national forest
with headquarters at Williams,
Ariz., during the season Just past
has one of the best records of any
Of the southwestern forests. Its
rangers only needed an average of
sight and one-ouarter minutes to
get started for fires. This remark
able record bore fruit, in that fires
we're reached quickly and extin-
suished before they became very
arge. The forest handled during
he season a total of fifty-five
Tres, only six of which burned
'ver an area larger than ten acres
On this forest of million and
bird acres, only 1927 acres were
burned over during the past sea-
ION, an average of only six acres
or every fire.