Boomers & Howlers

. . . They watched the fire all night

Stream toward Cachagua; the

big-coned inland pines

Made pillars of white flame. . . .

--Robinson Jeffers.

Little fires hiss and crackle. Big fires boom and howl. Boomers and howlers aplenty reverberated last week under western U. S. skies, advancing with gargantuan halloo on tinder-dry forests, wheat fields, grazing lands, defenceless towns. From streets, from factories, from jails went forth thousands of volunteers and conscripts to reenforce desperate, haggard foresters.

In the Pacific Northwest electrical storms, bringing no quenching rain, touched off countless fires. In one night 200.* Some swept out of control. On the slopes of Mt. Ranier thousands of acres of green virgin timber lay blackened, lifeless, while the tattered line of flames moved on. To a band of 25 firefighters marooned foodless in a rocky gorge on Mt. Ranier, roast flesh of deer, squirrel, coyote smelled savory. Elsewhere in Washington highways and electric lines were severed, apple orchards menaced when a $100,000 irrigation flume burned. In Chelan Forest 1,100 acres of rich timber and farmland lay desolate before the fire was controlled.

In Klamath County. Ore., 250 men, six tractors, two tanks struggled to corral a mighty blaze. In all, the northwest had approximately 50,000 acres laid low.

Citizens of Hawkinsville. Cal., watched the ominous sky, scorched tan by day, smeared crimson by night. After eating up 30,000 acres of timber and crops, the fire charged the town. Snatching up a few treasured belongings, the inhabitants fled to safety down a last narrow opening through the flames.

At San Luis Obispo, Calif., all prisoners from the county jail were released to battle fire. Black and charred lay 61,000 acres in Madera county, 10,000 in Tuolomne, 10,000 in San Luis Obispo. Fiendish firepots, devised of oily rags, candles, tin cans, were picked up. A pyromaniac with 30 blazes on his head, was sought.

In the Superior Forest of Minnesota there had been no real rain since April. Major fires raged.

In Oklahoma, 200 men fought 15 fires.

In Manitoba and Ontario numerous blazes were spotted, battled. Near The Pas, Man., a passenger train was blocked by a racing conflagration. After consultation, the passengers closed all windows, the engineer threw his throttle wide, crouched in his cab, rocketed three miles through a vault of flames, came out scorched but safe.

Off Nantucket Island, Mass., all able-bodied males dug, chopped, beat the bush to check a fire whipped by ocean winds. When 25 square miles had been burned, rain saved the settlements.

* Of the 6,921 forest fires last year, nearly one-half were started by lightning, over one-sixth by smokers. Worst fire ever recorded was in 1910, when 4,947,000 acre in the Northern Rockies burned.