Evening star., 1953-09-04
Three Little Sticks That Fiqht Fire
By Dorothy IA. Mortin

ME WOODS are Qry ana nave Deen
i for several weeks. To the United
States Forest Service and other forest
fire fighting agencies that means just
one thing-more forest fires. Statistics
show that although people have become
increasingly conscious of forest fires
during the past few years. prolonged
dry weather plus human use Of the
woods add up to increased forest fires.
The Smokey Bear forest fire preven-
ton campaign conducted by State and
Federal forest services with the Adver-
tising Council and the promotional
work of forest industries, recreation
groups, women's organizations and
other conServation-minded clubs has
more than paid of in reducing forest
fires. Long dry periods however, pre-
sent out-of-the- ordinary fire hazards
which require more than ordinary pre-
vention.
In New England the United States
Forest Service, conducting longtime
study, found that when the fire danger
is high, twice as many fires are likely
to occur as when the fire danger is
low. The prolonged dry spell last fall
brought that lesson home to Washing
tonians. In some States fires were pop
ping at the rate of 100000 week end;
less on weekdays. AS result Pennsyl-
vania closed her woods to entry, and
Virginia would not permit the building
of camp fires or smoking in the woods.
If the present drought continues, fire.
fighting organizations foresee bad fire
season this fall.
The Forest Service works on the old
adage, "Forewarned is forearmed."
Once the foreSterS know how dry the
woods are, they can have f1re-f1ghting
crews alerted to attack at a moments
notice, and they can take extra pre-
cautions to prevent fires. The problem
has been to know the infiammability
of the woods.
Most any one can walk through the
woods and say, TITS dry; and for
many years forest rangers did just that.
BY feeling and breaking dead twigs and
scraping away the litter on the ground.
they got q rough idea Of the fire
danger. Today, however, the Forest
Service and many other fire. fighting
agencies scientifically figure the fire
danger each day.
They classify the days into five
groups according to the likelihood Of
forest fires starting. A class day, for
example, means low fire danger-moist
earth, moist air and little chance for
a fire to start or go anywhere If it
does. At the other extreme is a class
day when the woods are most COM
bustible.
The bases for all fire-danger ratings
are the wind velocity and the amount
of moisture in the woods. The wind
gauge or thermometer measures the wind
velocity, but no one instrument will de-
termine the dryneSS of the woods. The
season Of the year, the date and
amount of the last rainfall, and the
dryness and temperature Of the air
help in calculating inf1ammability, and
the foresters use all these measure
ments.
They do not show the whole picture.
Any measurement of forest-f1re danger
must give chief consideration to the
moisture in the dead and decaying
material on the ground, but must con-
sider too, the drying out of the living
trees and plants. Some woods mate
rials will dry out quickly; some, very
slowly. Moisture in woods materials
varies so greatly from one place to
another, however, that taking samples
of dead and living materials over
widespread area is not practicable.
To find out the moisture in the woods
and how fast it is changing the For
est Service developed it's own device
fuel moisture sticks. In the forests
near Washington the sticks-three in
a set-are 18 inches long, about 21a
inches wide and 70 of an inch thick.
Made Of Eastwood, they are kiln dried
to weigh 100 grams each. Any slight
overweight is whitfield off.
The sticks are set out on wire hold
ers 10 inches above the ground over
leaves or brush which Stimulates the
forest ground cover of the area. Then
they are covered with enough thick
nesses of wire to simulate the shade
trees. Thus the sticks reflect the mois-
ture of the forest.
They are weighed three times a day.
Any variation in weight mirrors the
change In fuel moisture; an increase
since the previous reading means more
moisture and less fire danger;
decrease indicates drier forest condi-
tionS. Long years OF research by men
in the Forest Service show that when
these sticks are very dry, then it's time
to watch out. The sticks are now dry
ing out rapidly in the George Washing
ton and Jefferson National Forests in
Virginia.
The Forest Service has some 1000
fire weather stations throughout the
country, each equipped with set Of
sticks, an thermometer and a rain
gauge. Readings are taken at pre-
scribed times by the forest weather
observerS-usually volunteers.
To measure the wind velocity the
observer turns on the thermometer,
which looks like three cups mounted on
a high pole. He or she counts the
number of times the buzzer sounds in
two minutes and by that knows the
wind velocity. If rain has fallen, the
observer measures it in the rain gauge.
Anything under "a inch doesn't count
in lowering the fire danger in the
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