The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-08-13
SERIOUS FOREST FIRES SWEEPING
 OVER NORTHWEST
Lack of Rain Increases Dan- ger of FIames-AirpIaneS and Radio Used in
 Fight
Rx ". n. KIRKMAN

Spokane, Wash, August 12.-For miles in every direction. along the coast in the Cascades, through east ern Washington and northern Idaho, in the Rockies as far eastward as Montana, the Pacific Northwest is under smoke pail.
 Three months, virtually without rain, even in the Puget Sound coun- try, where rainfall usually is in- cessant, has resulted in the most serious forest fire situation that the northwest has experienced since 1909. Millions of feet of choice pine, fir, cedar. and spruce covering thousands of acres. scattered over this territory already are a total loss.
 Every available man-forest Rang CT and day laborer-has been pressed into service In the vain eff forts to check the flames. Aero planes have been used to locate the small blazes from which the larger start and every modern method of locating and fighting fire has been tried and failed. Officially the sltu- ation is characterized as most se- rious."
 Rain Needed
 Until there is a general prolonged rain, without lightning, permanent relief cannot be hoped for. Light rains, accompanied by electrical dis turbances, invariably aggrevate the situation because scores of small Sfa uybtrh daValnn into bad ones If not immediately dis covered and checked. This has hap pened in the northwest this winter.
 For the first time radio and aero planes are being used this year in combination on the efforts to save the forest. Regular patrol lines have been laid out for the aircraft, Oregon having appropriated $25,00O to purchase machines while the fed eral government also has them on the job. Unfortunately their effi- ciency Is seriously interferred with by the heavy clouds of smoke that fill the valleys and even obscure the peaks This makes for low visi- bility and the work of the aviators is rendered dangerous and often futile.
 Tourists In Danger
 Many summer IOuTiSlS nave poSh in danger but because of warnings issued they have been able to keep out of the direct path of the spread ing flames. In addition the great majority of the serious fires are far removed from the main roads. They spread rapidly through the dry finder that floors the forests at this season and then climb to the giant trees and with the flames leaping from branch to branch and trunk to trunk the spectacle is one to ere ate fear in the hearts of even the grizled timber men who are leading the fight.
 The Forest Rangers have been able to get warning to nearly all Of the settlers in the regions affected so that most of them have been able to escape. Federal officials and the protective association experts or the private lumber companies have been working together and already nave saved many especially valuapie tracts in the territory arfecteu' Blankets. axes, shovels and unlimit- ed sunnlies of provisions have been sent into the various sections while men to aid the fight ar being hired wherever possible. The Spokane of- flee of the forest service has been sending about 50 men a day into the woods and all of the other big cites adjacent to the fire zone follow similar program.
 Many Fight Flames
 In the St. Marie's area In mort ern Idaho hundreds of men nave been fighting fire for weeks on front of 175 miles. Camping In abandoned lumber fields and every where else that a base can be To- cated they have worked necessarily to hold the fire in the scrub wooded sections even using gas engine ana 1000 feet of hose at one point. The best they have been able to do, now ever, has been to check and retard the fires which still are beyond con trol.
 Ii is impossible as yet even to ap- proximate the damage. The recent reports show fires burning over the following areas. the reports being for only a single day:
 KootenaI national forest, north western Montana, 100 acres; Foehl Creek district, St. Joe, Idaho, 300 acres: Kaniksu forest. 800 acres; Myrtle Creek, northern Idaho, 1000 acres: Twin Creek, Clearwater for est Idaho. 1000 acres; Columbia na- tional forest near Portland, the largest fire in years: area not esti- mated: Bull Run water reserve, area not estimated.
 Tn one day official reports showed that so incendiary fires had been set on the Kootenai national for rest and special forest rangers were en route to apprehend those re sponsible. In western Montana anu northern Iadho the forest service force of roo men are fignting tne flames, the hot dry winds navins turned the woods to tihoer wn,.e outs ineffective. -... camning grounds, especially in the p1oclx Feet forest near the Canadian boundary have been destroyed. TOT tunately so far as is now khown' there has been no loss of human lives. although there have been many narrow escapes. There mas, however. been a considerable ioss of stock cut off and burned by the rapidly spreading fires.
 DOUBLE-CYLINDER AIR MOToh.
 An mir motor, on the order or tnose used in pneumatic tools, but or sucn extreme compactness that it is no hIrrer than a safety match box, weighs only ounces and yet de- velops over half horsepower. was an outstanding feature of a recent model exposition at Dublin, Ireland The motor, illustrated and described in the Popular Mechanics Magazine, is double-acting, with two opposed cylinders of % finch bore and stroke. and runs on compressed air at 100 to 300 pounds pressure.
 rl e. El