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Show Half Of All Forest Fires Are Preventab'e Washington July 8. With the-or ening of the season of fire danger o: most of the national forests, the for est service is sending broadcast : warning that more than half of thv forest fires in the United States ar due to carelessness or other prevent able causes, starting from campers, railroad locomotives, brush burning incendiaries, and sawmills This statement is based on an anal ysis of statistics compiled from tin forest fire records of the past season, sea-son, when more than 7,000 fires wert reported on national forests alont nnd approximately 10,000 on stati and private holdings in the eighteen states which received federal cooperation cooper-ation in fire protection under the Weeks law, namely, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachussetts. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey Maryland-, West Virginia, Kentucky Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota South Dakota, Montana, Idaho Washington and Oregon. Forest fires destroy millions of dollars' dol-lars' worth of timber and other property pro-perty every year, and in some yearf cause considerable loss of life. It has been estimated from the best information in-formation obtainable that forest fire? last year burned over an area of 6,000,000 acres with a total loss of at least $9,500,000. |