| Show HOW THEY TREY FIGHT THE GREAT FIRES Many who read r d of the battles with the tho forest Coret fires firos during the tho thelast thelast last summer may have felt folt that though the th story of the tho firos fires were ero complot completely y told there thoro was WUl much that might have been explained as to how w the tho fire fighters could accomplish anything nn Y thin g gt in the dire direction I t I tion Hon of chocking the tho t progress of a 0 conflagration of such tremendous proportions When E A Sherman of the local forest headquarters h q 1 h was called on Friday to talk to the students of Weber Academy he supplied the missing fragments of the great forest fires when whon he said When a fire is discovered in the forest every officer within vi thin striking distance rides at t once to the scene of action Tho The ranger travels upon such occasions prepared spared pr for action He has his saddle horse borse and a packhorse the latter loaded with his bed a shovel shoel axe a o mattock a few old sacks into which he has thrown a couple of frying pans a coffee coffeo pot and a few fow simple cooking utensils He Hc also has with him flour bacon and and a 3 few fow simple substantial supplies sufficient sufficient sufficient to last ono one on o man two or three weeks Within a few hours an experienced man can usually tell teU whether under average conditions he can stop the tho fire firo before he reaches the limit of his strength or if it will be necessary to send semi or go for help If the latter a crew of 25 50 or men are arc picked up and sent in to the scene of the fire i They are arc either preceded or accompanied by a pack train of 20 or 30 head of horses and mules loaded with tools provisions bedding and not infrequently dynamite An experienced packer is in charge of the train and a good camp cook coole is necessary Cooking for a crew of forty hungry men with no kitchen range excepting a n flock of long handled frying pans is interesting work especially on the march when it is necessary to have breakfast over and everything ready read Y to togo togo togo go into the packs and onto on to the who mules by br b six in the morning in order that the train may get on the move in to good season Back into the remote and heavily timbered districts in many places there is little horse feed because the trees shade shado out the tile grass and into such places laces the fire fighters often march afoot The shovel mattock and and axe are the weapons of the man who fights forest fires Fire extinguish extinguishers ers era lines of hose hoso r with good water pressure and hook and ladder equipment eq are not at his disposal Ho He uses tho the shovel to throw dirt dirton dirton dirton on the tho firo fire and smother it when it can be e fought at close range i with the mattock he lie digs a Do trench in the earth and frequently along the th e es line of his s trench and on the tho side toward tho the fire he backfires The Tho fire as it is first started burns bums slowly and he lie watches it alert to keep it from leaping the tho trench As it gathers headway it is all tho the time burning away from the trench and by the time it is a raging all aU is well vell It I t can thus only burn btu n toward the oncoming fire When full grown fire it has hos burned a strip between it and tho the trench so two meet they thoy stop slop for lack of fuel But in building this trench there may have been bean some somo fallen timber limber to contend with The axe is used to cut those a up so they the will not extend across the trench and carry the fire from the tits burned area aroa across the rangers breastworks If the fire firo is bUnting burning in light grass or woods weeds a heavy sack is used to whip wl wv p it out and if f no sack Back is at hand a groen green bough hough is a fair substitute Mr Mi Sherman said I have also pulled the saddle off m my Y horse and used the saddle blanket to good advantage l I tl I |
