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 , 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 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-·------~------_;;___~- - ..

• /9,1- 9 THE HERO DEAD ITH winter snows covering the fire-torn forest battlefronts following one of the most disastrous forest fire. seasons W jn the history of the country, the United States Forest Service announces its fourteen hero dead-fire fighters ~illed ,_in action on National Forests. ~ They are• Douglas C. Ingram, Portland, Oregon. assistant in range management in the Washington-Oregon district; •~ St. ·Luise, (ire-fighter, Chelan National Forest Washington;]. F. Marten, fire-fighter, Chelan National Forest. Wash- ington; W. P. Ma~eiff, fire-fighter. Colville National Forest. Oregon; Fred E. Gibson. fire-fighter, Mt. Hood National Forest. Oregon;'Franz Fran~, fire-fighter, Ranier National Forest. Washington; Joe Ai~en, fire-fighter, Pend Oreille Na- tional Forest, Idaho; ~rchie White, fire-fighter, , Idaho~Lester Rudd, fire-fighter, Flathead National Forest, Montana;-r'om Gorman, fire-fighter, Bitterroot National Forest, Montana;Norman K. Deem, forest guard, Santa Barbara National Forest, California; Richard Gell, fire-fighter, , California; Robert Keys and Richard Cornett, fire-fighters, Una~a National Forest, Virginia-Tennessee. ~~~ tn:X-~-/9J? Forest Fires Menace West Lives are Lost and Timber and Property Damage Mounts Into Millions as Situation Becomes Most Critical in Nineteen Years

NA MONTH marked by appalling losses in timber \Vith the closing of fourteen National Forests in Oregon, Iand property, the expenditure of millions of dollars, and involving 13,216,000 acres of government land, and six tragic loss of life, the forest fire. situation, particularly National Forests in Washington, involving 7,553,600 acre" in the West, has reached the most critical stage the nation only two National Forests in the Northwest remain open to has known since '1910. So perilous are conditions in Oregon, the public. This is the second time in the history of the N a- . Washington, l\lontana and Idaho that practically all of the tional Forests in this region that such a sweeping closure National Forests have been closed to the public. At the has been necessary. So great is the emergency, that the time of going to press a number of great fires were stirl governors of the northwestern states have indicated their raging unchecked, destroying many homes, ranches, logging intention of postponing the opening of the hunting season camps, schools and hotels. At Estacada, Oregon, a thou- unless there are general rains. sand men were battling for their lives and homes over a Reports from public and private agencies indicate that the sixteen-mile front. The fire had swept down to within five West is suffering greatly from fire outside of the National miles of the town. Forests. California reports that, fanned by a wave of in- Up to September 10, more than 650,000 acres of timber- cendiarism, field and forest fire toll has amounted to a land have been burned over in the National Forests. Two damage of half a million dollars from more than 2,000 Iircs. million dollars have been expended for fire fighting by the There were 488 fires burning outside of the National government since July. The greatest loss has been in Mon- Forests in Oregon. Washington reports a terrific fire sea- tana, Idaho and northern Washington, where 313,000 acres son in the eastern part of the state. There were 4+2 fire,: have been burned over. In southern Washington and Ore- outside of the National Forests. It is the worst fire season gO!1, the Forest Service reports that 209,000 acres have been on record in that region. Idaho, outside of 'the National burned, while California has suffered a loss of 73,000 acres. Forests, reports 515 fires, largely from lightning. In northern Idaho and western Montana, nearly 3,000 men More than a dozen lives have been reported lost in Jirl' are fighting fire in the National Forests, while an equal fighting, several have gone insane, and a number, including number are engaged in Washington and Oregon. In addi- the wife of a forest ranger, have been lost for days in the tion, thousands of men have been called out to fight fires on blazing forests. Douglas C. Ingram, assistant in the Branch state and private lands, where the loss has been nearly as of Range Management in the district office of the Forest great as in the National Forests. Of the 5,025 fi res reported Service at Portland, Oregon, met a tragic death in fightint; in National Forests during the past month, 3,016 have been ~ the Camas Creek fire in the Chelan National Forest, on caused by lightning and 2,009 by human agency. August 13. It is believed by the Forest Service that Ingram Perhaps the most disastrous fire raging uncontrolled at is the first forest officer under permanent appointment to this time is on the Mount Hood National Forest, in Oregon. have lost his life in fighting fire-an extraordinary record Spread out along a sixteen-mile front, it was roaring down the considering the great risks that have to be taken. In charge Clackamas River Valley toward Estacada, a town of 2,000 of a number of fire camps, Ingram knew the great danger population. Every able-bodied man in the little town, in- many of his men faced, and made many trips deep into the

.1' I' h d ., d th f I burning forests to look after their safety. It was on such cIuulIIg an evange ist, a J01l1e e army 0 wean', s eep- , . . . . . , . an expedition that he gave hIS life. WIth a fire-fighter less men who were fight111g desperately to halt the fire almost ." . 1" I 'I h h d d named Sa111t LOUIse, he directed a fire crew to safety after at tI re CIty imits. twas rere t at two un re men, .. ,, a sudden change 111the w111d had trapped them. He then trapped by the flames, were led to safety by I. H.Sherrard, I h in rh h f h f h . . set out to ocate ot er crews 111t e pat 0 t e ame w ell supervisor of the Mount Hood N ational Forest. h b h h d k H' b d e was overcome y t e eat an smo e. IS 0 Y was In southern California, on lands adjacent to the Santa discovered on August 24 by searching parties. The body of Barbara National Forest, a line of fire was sweeping down his companion was found the following day. on the town of Ventura and one of the richest oil fields in Another grim tragedy of the fire stricken area was the the state. Conscription of men over a radius of fifty miles hysterical wandering of Mrs. Louise Higgins, the wife of was started by a fleet of trucks. Three hundred residents a forest ranger on the Payette National Forest, in Idaho. of Santa Paula Canyon were ordered to leave their homes as Missing for several days, and feared lost in the great fire a precautionary measure. One oil tank containing 11,000 that raged around her home, Mrs. Higgins was finally barrels of oil boiled over from the heat of the fire, spilling found, severely burned and bruised, and in a semi-conscious its inflammable contents toward the valley below it. condition, wandering through the fire area miles away.

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