Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1922-09-28
FOREST FIRES ARE
WORSE THAN USUAL
THEIR NUMBER AND DESTRuc.
TIVENESs NOT FULLY
APPRECIATED.
TOTAL LOSSES OF 100000
Exceptional Dryness of the Season
Has Made These conflagrations in
the Northwestern Timber Regions
Numerous and Hard to Fight
BY JAMES P. HoRNAoAY

BY JAMES p. HoRNAOAY
Washington.-Altho the forest
fire situation in the northern Rocky
mountain and north Pacific coast re-
gions is far worse than il has been for
six years. there is little general APP
probation of the fact throughout the
country. So many hundreds Of fires
have there been, and so many brief
reports of them, that they have come
to be accepted as part Of the routine
Of daily life. just as bloody battles
were during the World war. 1t is cal
culated that the losses have aggre-
gated about S5O00.OOO.
Possibly the greatest actual damage
to virgin standing timber has been
outside the boundaries of the United
States, on the Canadian side in the
Pacific coast region. One fire in Brit
ish Columbia destroyed sixty million
feet Of the finest timber. So numer-
Gus have been the fires in that prov
lncee that the lieutenant governor of
British Columbia ordered the cessa-
ton Of logging operations in Van
AOuRtA iSitlilh OANfA " A1AihHN liz
employees for fire fighting.
While there has been no such single
case of damage on the American side,
the fires have been even more numer-
GUS and have covered a larger area.
including much of the timber region
Of eastern and western Washington,
Oregon, Idaho and Montana. One hun
bred and fifty thousand acres have
been burned over in Washington, and
the property loss in Idaho is placed at
81 100000. Some virgin forests and
tens of thousands of acres of cut-over
lands have been burned and large
quantities of second-growth timber
have been destroyed. as well as great
quantities of logs, many camps and
much equipment.
Fires Easily Started.
The season has been exceptionally
dry throughout the Pacific Northwest,
with the result that fires are very
easily started. In one instance a
spark from donkey engine used in
logging operations started a fire
which covered 10000 acres of land,
destroyed 15,OO0,00O feet of saw tim
Der, four logging camps, fifteen don
key engines one locomotive, thirty
five fiat cars, twenty houses and three
automobiles Occasional thunder show
ers have sometimes aggravated the
situation, because Of the accompany
ing lightning and resulting new fires.
From almost every small section of
the northwestern timber belt come
tales of fire after fire and endless
accounts of the struggles OF forest
rangers and patrols. loggers, sawmill
employees and citizens In general, ex-
erting themselves to exhaustion to
! check the flames. Here are a few re
cent reports taken at random:
At Newport. Wash. there were two
separate fires. At Potlatch. Idaho. a
great fire along FloOdwood creek
spread for many days and was fought
by 500 men. One phase of this and
other battles with the fires in north
ern Idaho was that the fire fighters
went on strike. Two fires east of st.
Maries in Idaho burned over 5000
acres, menaced great white pine hold
ings and required the heroic efforts OF
300 fire fighters to check it.
Oregon Had Some Bad Ones.
In the Blue river country of the
Cascades in Oregon a fire threatened
some OF the finest timber in that sec
tion and was only checked after a
desperate effort by a large number of
men. There were numerous fires In
various other parts of Oregon. one of
them for a time threatening the rich
agricultural Hood river valley Many
fires were reported in Columbia and
Tillamook counties
In western C0wlitz county. Wash
ington, the Eastern and Western
Lumber company had to suspend all
operations and concentrate on fire
fighting for many days A fire in the
Cascade mountains, believed to have
been started by berry pickers, endan
gered the Seattle city light and power
lines A bridge was destroyed on the
!. Eatonville branch of the Chicago, Mil
waukee and St. Paul railway. Their,
. were many fires in the Snoqualmi,
: national forest, but the worst of then
: was brought under control after 4
|: had burned over 800 acres. A fire ives
Of Darlington blackened $4,000 acres
: When the great number Of differ
: ent fires is considered, it is not sur
: prisIng that statistics show that tn,
area of forest land annually burne,
. over is about twice that cleared by tn,
ak for lumber and other purposes
United States foresters, lumbermel
and timber owners agree that tn,
present costly experiences demon
strate that the primary step In solv
ing the problem of the supply of for
est products in the future is adequat
protection of the remaining stands o
virgin timber and the cut-over land
on which nature is attending to re
foresting.
Lava From Mount Vesuvius.
The lava in the new cone of Noun