Ninetj}~Nine Rea Daj}8
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Crew after crew were forced to fall back and run for their lives NinetJ}~Nine Rea DaJ}8 Since July I, more than 858,000 acres have been burned over in the Nationai Forests, 724,000 of which were in the West. Although complete reports are not available, indications are that the area burned over on private and state lands will exceed that on the National Forests. To give the public some idet1of this grim spectacle, three veteran Forest Service officers, Major John D. Guthrie, Wallace Hutchinson and Howard : , , R. Flint, have pictured 6rie~y just what has taken place this summer in the ~re·torn western states.- Editor. - : ~. : ; .~ The Grim Spectacle of the Pacific Northwest By JOHN D. GUTHRIE lONE thousand, three hundred and fifty-six forest fires, its wake. Atmospheric humidity dropped, with high winds -1 and 300,000 acres burned over, untold millions following, and the fires spread to such size and in- ,:l of feet of timber destroyed, an expendi- _ tensity, especially in Washington, that they raced ture of $900,000 in fire suppression, and the rough-shod over the efforts of hund reds of men ! sacrifice of six human lives are the brief sta- to stop them, The Rainier, \ Venatchee, -:l tistical facts of the 1929 forest fire season Chelan and Colville National Forests, all 1 i up to late in September for the National in \ Vashington, bore the crux of the i Forests of Oregon and \ Vashing- assault.On the Wenatchee seventy- J ron. Back of these figures are stories three fires were reported, while fifty- of abnormally low humidity, terrific th •.ee sprang up on both the Chelan and 1 winds, days and nights of anxiety, un- Colville Forests. i excelled bravery, and the loss of homes Never in the history of the National J and property. Forests did fires spread so rapidly. Never j Although the fire season began early did they burn so hard. By August 10 the in the summer and the first days of July situation was critical; and then came the found a number of severe blazes on the I' fatal day of August l l, said by forest National Forests, it was on August 2 officers to be one of the most destructi ve that the Pacific Northwest became a rag- fire days on record. Fire lines carefully ing inferno. On this day a severe dry KILLED IN ACTION and laboriously constructed during the lightning storm swept from the mid- Douglas C. Ingram, veteran slightly higher night humidity were Cascades of Oregon northward through Forest Service officer, who made swept over by the flames as if they had \Vashington, leaving hundreds of fires in the sujncme sacrifice never hcen there, and crew after crew 676 AMERICAN, FORESTS N ouember, 1929 were forced to fall back or run for their lives. Many fire a sleeping fire-fighter, gassed by the smoke, just before the camps were burned out. So fierce was the blaze that large fire swept the camp. Flynn was himself gassed, recovering standing trees and many fallen logs were reduced to ashes. later in a Wenatchee hospital. The charred remains of deer, bear, cougar and other crea- 1It was on this fire that Douglas C. Ingram, assistant in the tures of the wild were strewn over the burned-over areas. branch of Ran e Mana ement in the district office of the For- Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane were thoroughly est Service at Portland, Oregon, after saving a crew by his combed for fire-fighters, and although they poured into the coolness and bravery, within two days was himself trapped fire camp by the hundreds, it was necessary to send emer- with the college student Ernani St. Luise.. Ingram was gency calls to Idaho and Montana. camp superintendent and his camp Every forest officer in the North- had burned. On the afternoon of west was rushed to the scene, in- August 13 he was looking for a new cluding two flying squadrons from • campsite. 'He asked no one to go eastern Oregon. with him, but the young University The Rainier National Forest had of Washington athlete, St. Luise, more than 300 picked men on its volunteered. They started down a largest fire; there were 500 on the ridge trail through a jungle of lodge- three fiercest fires in the Wenatchee; pole pine, but turned back after find- and' more than 700 battled three ing that the fire was making a flank- Chelan fires. Fire pumps, hose, ing movement and might cut them shovels, saws, fire torches, bed rolls off. But retracing their steps only a and food supplies were being con- short distance they turned off the stantly rushed to the lines. Every trail. That was the last seen of them available airplane in the district was until eleven days later when their utilized for transportation. Mean- bodies were found on a steep hillside while, the Olympic National Forest more than two miles from where was putting on a great show. On they were last seen. They had been Mount Constance, far back in the gassed before the flames reached high Olympics, a large fire crew the~ . would have faced starvation had not August 27 brought another blow- airplanes d r 0 p p e d thousands of up and men and organizations were pounds of food supplies. pushed to the breaking point. Brush- As hot and dry days passed the burning fires of settlers and ranchers Chelan and Colville fires made terri- began to break away with the east fying advances. Scouts for fire- FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE winds. The air became saturated fighters crossed into Canada and Miles of safety strips resulted from back. with acrid smoke; cinders began to brought in 150 Doukhabors from a firing-but wind-driven flames jumped them fall in towns and cities. Then Russian religious colony by special as if they had never been there Oregon fires began to send up great permission from the United States black columns of smoke. Berry pick- Immigration Service. A snag fell on one of these Russians ers started a bad fire on the Mount Hood National Forest. and killed him; a huge boulder rolled down a slope on a It was stopped by 160 men who kept pumps constantly going. fire-fighter on the Rainier front and he died soon afterwards. The Whitman, Wallowa and Crater Forests kept the Oregon A fire foreman dropped dead on a Chelan fire line. forest officers in despair. Ten cottages were burned in the Then came the disastrous Camas Creek fire on the Chelan Crater fire. A falling snag killed a fire-fighter on the Mount front. The fire swung up the steep mountain slopes on the Hood front. north side of Lake Chelan destroying five miles of flume sup- Smoke spread over the entire Northwest in a perfect screen plying water to the orchards at Manson. Over the steep so that it was impossible for lookouts to report new fires. crest it raced into large areas of insect-killed pine and into Thousands of brush fires on state and private lands began to the Methow River drainage. Here high winds made freak- spread together. Logging camps, bridges, ranch houses, sum- ish by the topography of the country swept it through tree- mer homes and fences were burning. Then came the drastic crowns in almost any and every direction. Repeatedly fires order on September 11 that closed the National Forests of swept down canyons, around points of ridges, back up par- Oregon and Washington to the public. At the same time the allel canyons, and up over the lodgepole pine ridges, almost governors of the two states issued proclamations asking all trapping, time and again, the desperate fire crews. Men were lumbering to cease. Oregon deferred the opening of the gassed and fell unconscious in the path of the roaring flames, hunting season. By September 12 the smoke was so dense to be dragged to safety by their comrades. High winds threw that the sun could hardly be seen. Air patrol became ineffec- smoke-blankets miles ahead of the advancing wall of flame, tive and dangerous. endangering the lives by suffocation and gas of men resting or Under the dense blanket of smoke entered the sneaking asleep in the fire camps. Ted Flynn, a road engineer, rescued incendiary, and men, tools and food supplies were rushed to .;JJ, November, 1929 AMERIOAN FORESTS 677 .1 another front in southern Oregon.The Umpqua National fire, just outside of the Columbia National Forest, broke Forest, victimized by the incendiary menace, had 375 men on away and swept 20,000 acres, burning homes, ranches and a 6,000-acre fire. Hundreds were fighting man-set fires on schools.Here an old settler was burned to death in his the Siskiyou and Siuslaw Forests. Oregon became a blazing cabin. Troops were called from the Vancouver Barracks. torch, and rangers and the flying squadrons were rushed back By September 26 rain had fallen west of the Cascades, and from Washington where rains had brought the larger fires all Washington fires were under control. In Oregon, a gen- under control. But no sooner had the men reached the eral rain aided in bringing all fires north of Coos Bay under Oregon front when things began to boil over on the Olympic, control. But the fire danger still remains-the fire season of in Washington, from a smoker's cigarette. Then the Dole 1929 is not yet over in Oregon and Washington. THE FIRE TANKS GO INTO ACTION Wherever roads led into the fire areas, the fire tanks cut down the enemy with their deadly stream of water ._- ---------, -----0-·- ----- ~----------_;;___~- - .