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A lookout in a lofty tower (above)
telephones headquarters the location
of a fire starting in Ocala National
Forest, Florida, while another (right)
reports a blaze from his post in
Pisgah National Forest, North Caro
lina.
LMOST every year Uncle Sam
takes it on the chin to the turn
of $50,000,000 in loss of valu
able timber caused by fire A
A
lot of these fires are the results ol
“natural causes.”
But the “firebug,” the misguided in
dividual who purposely starts a forest
fire for one of several reasons, is one
of the principal headaches of the United
States Forest Service whose job it is
to protect the 200.000,000 acres of po
tential lumber that is scattered through
out America.
Against the menace of the firebug is
pitted the trained personnel of the U
S. Forest Service —men who know their
jobs as well as the cleverest federal
detective or city sleuth who ever
tracked a murderer or kidnaper.
According to David Godwin, associate
chief of the fire fighting division of the
service, practically every individual who
sets ablaze timber that is guarded by
Uncle Sam’s rangers is caught in the
end. This statement does not necessarily
apply to private forest lands not under
direct supervision of the Forest Service,
but it is definitely true of timber owned
by the government.
How do these “G-men of the Forest”
operate? For answer, let us turn to the
confidential files of the United States
Forest Service:
Forest Ranger Robert Kloppenburg,
on duty in Santa Barbara National For
est. California, got a phone call one
afternoon from a filling station owner
on a highway in the Cuyama valley,
near the forest’s boundary The caller
had seen a man setting a fire in the
woods not far from the highway.
Kloppenburg took a crew to the scene
in a truck and had the fire out in 20
minutes. Before the men had caught
their breath, the smoke of another fire
was seen two miles away They hur
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How a forest fire starts: a tiny blaae in
dry leaves and twigs.
j lorest Firebug j
.A. , M A I
ried off to check that —and a third was
discovered farther down the valley. In
all. they discovered and put out five
fires that afternoon.
OUT the filling station man had seen
the firebug and had taken the li
cense number of his car The rangers,
furthermore, had found identical tire
tracks at the scene of each blaze An
alarm was broadcast, and before night
the police had arrested the fugitive A
few weeks later he was tried, convicted
and sentenced to a stiff term in the
federal prison at McNeil Island.
Not always is the ranger’s detective
work that simple. A long and bitter
legal battle was waged by the forest
service before Firebugs George Nutter
and Denny Jacobs were brought to ius
tice. These two men were finally con
victed of starting one of the most de
structive fires that ever hit northern
California—a blaze which destroyed 31.-
000.000 board feet of marketable* vellow
and sugar pine, and seriously threatened
the timber bordering Yosemite National
Park and the famous Mariposa trees
It took 790 hard-pressed men to get
that fire under control, and many of
them were kept on the scene for nearly
a month extinguishing smoldering brush
fires which the great blaze left in its
wake.
But if it took a month to lick the
fire, it took very much longer to lick
the firebugs. The job was finally done
by Fire Chief Wofford and U. S. At
torney Pierson M Hall and Hall’s as
y a|sK fj.
If the alarm is given in time, the Forest Ranger
puts the fire out with a portable water pack.
sistant. Jack Irwin
Suspicion was first centered around
Nutter, a cattle rancher of the vicinity,
and Jacobs, an Indian, when it was
learned that the ranch ownei had
moved a number of his cattle from the
burned area BEFORE the fire started
Furthermore. Nutter had been known
to have started fires on his own lano
before, for purposes of collecting in
surance. In short, the man had a repu
tation as a “burner” Jacobs hung
around Nutter’s ranch considerably, did
a little work for him occasionally, was
pretty much of a drunkard, and had a
poor reputation in the community
Fir® Chief Wofford got busy, and
pertinent information began to turn up
The pair were arrested six months latei
and confined in the Madera County iail
There they were questioned undei a
lie-detector loaned by the Berkeley po
lice. They still denied their guilt, but
A H. Bledsoe, experienced operator of
the lie-detector, was convinced the two
men were lying
A LMOST two years after the fire
i started. Nutter and Jacobs were
convicted and got stiff sentences at hard
labor in the federal road camp in Ari
zona. to be followed by a stretch in
the Madera County iail.
Oddly enough, the firebug seems to
be most active in time of depression.
For large-scale forest fires do make
jobs—temporary ones—and a fire will
be deliberately started so that men will
be pressed into service as fire-fighters
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Here is the end product of a forest fire—blackened trunks in a
Washington forest where mighty trees stood an hour before.
Some years ago a veritable epidemic
of forest fires took place in Idaho The
fires took place at regulai intervals,
along a more or less straight path across
the forest country; and presently it was
noticed that a fire would no sooner be
discovered than rattle-trap autos full of
men would begin driving up and park
ing.
These men would alight and stand
about until the harassed fire wardens
drafted them into service. Then, for a
few days or a week, they would have
jobs—3o or 40 cents an hour and three
squares a day.
It was deduced that these were un
employed casual laborers of the kind
who drift all across the ranch and farm
country of the west. The depression had
made jobs scarce These drifters—oi
some of them, at least—had hit on the
idea of creating work for themselves
by setting fires
The governor of Idaho had the situa
tion called to his attention, that sum
mer, and he promptly declared martial
law in seven counties, with National
Guardsmen patrolling the roads and al
lowing no one to enter without a pass
And as soon as that was done, it is said,
the “epidemic” of forest fires came to
an end!
Incidentally, the work of the CCC
boys in cutting down fire losses should
be mentioned. They have nothing to do
with firebug-detection, but they have a
lot to do with stopping fires once they
are started