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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 23, 1963)
1 48 Fire-Fighters Manning Guard Posts In Winema National Forest ft5' . 1 ... Mill -4 lr'Wr lajlitllr". FIRE-FIGHTERS STUDY AMID TIMBER A building used at a barn many years ago provide classrooms for fire-fighters of the Winema National Forest during the three-day fire school held annually in June at the Sevenmile Guard Station. This year 48 trainees took the instrue- ! iA is-' 1 1. .'. i u tion which began Tuesday and ended Thursday. Trainees receive instruc tion in a variety of subjects before being assigned to some of the Wine ma's 10 guard stations or snven fire lookouts. CREWMEN LEARN TO USE PUMPS Fire suppression crewmen of the Chiloquin Ranger District, seated, learn from Bob Asher, left, standing, fire control officer of the Klamath District, and his assistant Joe Wagner, the use of centrifugal and other types of pumps used to extinguish fires. Some pumps are constructed to send a misty spray alonq a level plane; others are designed to shoot solid streams of water into the uppermost branches of tall trees. Will P VERDANT CLASSROOM A group of fire - fightinq trainees practice setting up a water pump along the tree lined banks of Sevenmile Creek. Fire fighters of the Chilo quin, Chemult and Klamath districts took the instruction and tested their skills in com petition with one another later in the week. ,S1 ' "M'PfS' I' TRAINEES LEARN HOW Clarence "Moose" Jennings, third from left, lectures to a qroup of tire. fighters from the Klamath Ranger District on some vital points of control ling small fires in the forest. Jennings later used the torch at his feet to start a "snag" fire which he etinguished to demonstrate the use of the shovel and established fire suppression techniques. . i. its " WHIRLING DISCS CLOCK WINDS A propellor of four metal discs rotating at the top of the pole sets off an electircal buiz each time it completes a revolution, transmitting the signal to a control box where a fireman counts each sound durinq a two-minute period. The total number of blips fired durinq the brief period is equal to the speed of the wind, which spins the prop. The wind measurinq device, called an anemometer, is useful in assistinq rangers to establish the extent of the fire danger daily during summer. I. w ft ftrt . " "Ct "STICKS" INDICATE FIRE HAZARD Dan Abraham, fire control officer of the Winema Forest, removes a set of specially treated pine dowels from a metal bracket to weigh them on a scale nearby. The sticks absorb mois ture in the air, if any is present, increasing their weight. The less the sticks weigh, the drier are the condition! in the forest and greater is the hazard of fire. Forty cinlit fire-fighters of tlw Winema National Forest are man ning fire guard stations and look out towers throughout tile forest today after receiving instruction! in an annual three-day fire school which has figured immeasurably in reducing the spread of fires in the Winema during the past two years.. In 1MI, 100 man-caused and lightning-caused fires razed 401 acres of forest land in the Wine ma, for an insignificant aver- age of .4 acres burned per fire. Last year the average was even. less. Fifty eight fires which broke1 out in the forest during 1W12 burned not more than a total od 10 acres, or an overage of .16 of i an acre damaged per fire. The negligible amount of forest lands razed bv fire in the past two years is the result of swift action and teamwork among look out guards, lire . suppression crews, smoke chasers and their supervisors. The teamwork among those on fire duty and the ability of each member to do his job well is developed largely through the fire achool. which this year opened with a briefing at 7:30 p.m., Monday, in Chiloquin and resumed Tuesday with the first of three days of classes held at the Sevenmile Guard Station, near Fort Klamath. Tile trainees, approximately one-third of whom received the instruction in past years, took ourscs in map reading, fire be havior, use of tools in fire sup pression work, extinguishing small fires, use of water and water pumps, radio use and care, maps and smoke chasing, and fire or ganization and crew action. Speed and adeptness in han dling fire-fighting tools and equip ment is vital if employes of the Winema are to seek out and ex tinguish smaller (ires before they become large ones and threaten destruction to vegetation and tim ber in some of the forest's 913.444 acres. Included in the training: Most of the forestry aides set up and operated a water pump and compressor which was fed from Sevenmile Creek and learned to trace a fire by taking a bearing on its smoke and then seeking it out. In addition, trainees learned that forest fires react differently under varied conditions of humid ity and w ind velocity and then in another course, observed instruc tors splash dirt on a fire to smotlier it when water was not available. Other forestry workers who art- serving in lookout towers this summer visited the lookout sta tion at nearby Fort Klamath and plotted imaginary fires on the tower's "fire finder." A new wrinkle has been added to the Sevenmile Guard Station's weather measuring devices, which aid foresters in determining whether the current fire danger is tow, medium, high or extreme. Tlie new device is an ancmome-l tor. a' weather vane type object which spills in the wind at the top of a tall post located at the mam entrance of the guard station. The anemometer meas ures t h c velocity of the wind as it relates on its axis. bach time it completes one spin an electrical buzz is sounded in a box at the base of the pole. The total number of buzzes sound- D-d during a two-minute period is equivalent to tlie wind velocity, or the mile per hour rate of the wind. After determining the wind vel ocity, foresters weigh a specially treated set of "pine sticks," situ ated outdoors near tlie station, to establish the amount of moisture present in dead brush and debris in the area. The sticks weigh loo grams when "oven" dry, indicating that the fire hazard in the forest is "extreme." Increased moisture in the air adds to their weight and indicates a corresponding de crease in the combustible na ture of kindling at the time of the test. Foresters take the information they receive from the "pine ticks and the anemometer andl reler to a chart which sets the! jdegrec of the fire hazard. For instance, although high moisture noted in the forest would indicate a low ire dancer. that danger would be increased if strong winds were present at tlie time. As the training ended, fire sup pression crew members and fire tower lookouts were assigned to the Winema's 10 guard stations and seven lookouts, where they will be alert to the presence of fire during the remainder of summer. Instructors of the fire school were Dan Abraham, Doug Shaw, John Grove. Ed Harshman, Vern Fridley, Joe Carter, Clar ence Jennings, Lloyd Olson, James Warren, Homer FaulkOer, Robert Asher, Joe Wagner, Jesse Barr and Horace Ijindrith. 3&tJtMlM KLAMATH FALLS. ORKGON, SUNDAY, JUNE M. 19(3 I" f' -':"!; !,igr ;i LOOKOUTS PLOT IMAGINARY FIRE Dwyght Moore, right, forester of the Klamath Ranger District, observes John Vest, Swan Lake lookout, and Elenore Wiggins, Deer Butto lookout, as they plot a mock fira on the "fir finder" in the Fort Klamath Look out Tower. After detecting a fire, a lookout quard moves to the "fire finder" where he plots its location and then relays the information to fire suppression crews nearest the fire. Crews are then dispatched immediately to control the blaie. Uc-v n ' ' M -" -iJA oil ' - I-"- . . mi" T ha? r I t .v j -j--- r if - i VI! '"aiAa - frLLZt, "!t,.i t 'JX&X$LL'K. w. ;- EARLY CHOW FOR FIRE-FIGHTERS Backlighted in early morninq sunlight, students of the fira school mean der around the campground at the Sevenmile Guard Sta tion while awaiting "chow" call for breakfast, served cafeteria style beginning at 4:30 at the station. Last year, students received their meals in a Fort Klamath restaurant. V V .T ! mm vr I. 'i 5 ; v 'i- SMOKE BETRAYS BLAZE IN ROTTEN STUMP Clar ence "Moose" Jennings rakes away a pile of slash with his shovel before moving in to suppress a snag fira in the vicinity of Sevenmile Creek. Jennings started the blaze to demonstrate the methods of putting out a fir without the us of water. First, the forest ranger serapei the combustible material away from th fir and than smothers it with dirt he hurls with th shovl. Observ ing th demonstration ar mploys of th Klamath Ranger Distdiet.
