The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 22, 1899, Page 28

THE SUNDAY CALL. The Men Who ve Been Through Many Forest Fires Tell How the CGrim Enemy May Be Lonquere LT [ & R has been a month nd learn tt efficient ways n T « he fire got too T s Corte Madera « B a tw touct tt i canyon. From t I nor could 1 [ P and v T t that was r ' of the b th a A round 1 g log on which they are ibling down the hillside and ”‘PRAyER(;ouooo gttt _HELP. M15S DOROTHY UTNANM SHELDON. i have to rush g stubs of up the line smoki bac! g e was probably not more th quarter of a mile of front left to the when it was d fove, for the flames were In impregns brush and the fierce gale which blowing with stunning force was around so as to drive the towns. Darkness impass: forbade a repetition of the work of day, on drove the fire and there nothing to be done to save the town from destruction. Acre after acre of abl rs untll the Marin s wake up to the idea ty s growing and that it is roads and cut up tais wilderness that is now ,0f no one and a danger to all.” hing, president of the Mill Valley and Tamalpais Railroad, said: *I do not consider that there is any danger b earings was ng of the flames neared ber was being turned to barren waste to life In any of theor Hoes ny Gelger started from the patha UFIDCT was bene fumed to hasren woste o experienc i ST e v up the "-\‘lf the Bl pheromenon occurred such as T have compa cly little loss on improved coming conflagra never before witnessed, rain began to as it appeared out of an almost clear but after our first surprise was over w examined the sky more carefully and discovered a long, thin gauze-lige cloud ached fire glan h it w property, such as dwellings. ““Our railroad has had much to do with increasing the f: for handling fire, as it enables nd men fresh and ready for work on almost any ridge of 8o thin that the stars could be scci the mountaln, where formerly they® hag through it, yet the raln continped. Now two hours of hard walking to get there, more and darker clouds began to and were all worn out and unfit to dg Dersons who had removed Iaise and lend thelr aid to our first friend. anything when they arrived. » e nco £s commenced to gather the filmy cloud that had thinned almost no trouple in landing men anywhere on 1 are often in to imperceptibility. The rain as it in- fiftecn minutes’ notice, with all their tocls they creased in volume galned over the fire, ang a safe method of escape besides.” ho had and soon all that was left of two miles of . E. Baker, superintendent of con- finished raging furnace was here and there a struction of fhn North Pacific Coast Rail- road, has had many years of experience in fighting fire all along the line of the raflroad from Sausalito to Cazadero, and to him it seemed an old story. “I never feel afraid,” he said, “and have no trou- ble in extinguishing a fire if there are roadways or trails through the forest, so that I can get my men to it and handle them in'a body. I usually try to work me on, and are of light reflecting rown there from some behind the Little Ta- ht grew and finally n over the ridge, arts of those who 7es secure. d worse this time than be- decp red glow that looked like & blowhole in the lava bf a crater. “Yes, 1 am glad it's out, but I have seen two before. The great fire of 158) which cleared every green leaf west of the top of Tamalpals, and the Larkspur fire of ten years since that burned half of the Baltimore Canyon and most of Corte Madera. And I will never feel safe NG, FIRE-WITH FIGHT e California ls Should Fighting Devastate on the fire entirely by flanking. That Is the fire generally advances with the wind or up a grade with a more or less uni- form lin ks of troops would @0 not believe in g [ from the front, but keep ing it f the ends cut {nto & ng men from each e % main tools to be used, a grass can be removed from t h can be thrown e path of n the who came near night, £trong op E > 8 ¥ ‘The done by this fire was small with what it would have be nrot checked it a rossed ‘Little_Tamalpa stroyed = the ess teps pre- a repetition destructive fires, The past history this part of Marin County shows that a 1s burned over every groves of majestic red the valleys of the region are I often that many of the lar e trunks that are like covered with a feathery County’s scenic beauty part to the sequolas, if for no other reason, be protected. “With the probability occurring again at owners should org: emergency fire comy alled out on short notice and capably handled. This_could' be ac lished b3 ing each of the townsite, w I road and construction compan antee to have ain numi report at vective for transportation. > chief and deputies ¢ ach squad men should by ned so pecimens a tall column growth. Marin is due in large and to save these, should her forests of a great fire ny time the property nize and sust an ny which could be of ap- n In this way time would be saved etter apportioning of men ob- ained than when each tries to save his own at the expense or to the neglect of others’ property. “'Persons are not likely to send men to 2id -others when they have no uarantee that a like turn will be done for them, but if an organization were effected the plan would be simplified, the men would not have to be engaged 'so long and the expense would be divided among those for whose benefit it was incurred. “‘The matter of transportation is also very important, It has been found that esson to JBe Learned From the Tamalpais Five a State of Dense Forests==All I< > now the Best Methods Fires That Some Day All This Great Country. s0 men unused to hill-climbing are f-rell; fatigued by getiing to the fires that they > largely incapacitated for effective work. Thé mountain railway was used to good advantage in land 1men at proper elevations fresh and ‘ methods employed in fihting for- est and grass fires a very d ent {ro those ] ved in y fires. 1f, for in- stance, the fire is in grown up ees and underbr ) get within rcach 1 the heat if the p : must be rememtb als . t one is fartunate if wet a sack to which can be om the flames the men both flan} 1 toward the By th | are kept at the pen- un p n the tion was one t} being fire, but 1at was set as a back € brus me un- height and r ut- fire, how he w rd the soft him for It thanked wher am 1s faith th ger “times has rain been prayed for, ever was urgent necessity more ing in a beau- the northern had wate th imb < in with a sensa e, it seemed hing to stay seemed to her, enemy. o leiie of Tamalpais must have been reason of some former experi- ‘The name given by they all do at the com. 5y ; egoing. Ta mal pais— mencement, was rolling along with flames e—Stay—L recollect— forty feet high in the ordinary sh and is the meaning in leaping above the highest treetops when me of T pals, which it came to groves of them. Fire travels St ¢ this fiery up hill with great rapidity because the could be done i . current of hot air_generated slope of the hill. s n the w Thus the > tendency pOre volcar ain is utilized to intercept its ad- tible greasewood t the top. In thick brush it is time the Yy to clear a path along parallel e ridge 1 just below its crest on 0ppos that from which the ncing and back-fire from this— is too strong to risk letting burn s edge. R after all the only way to fight such fi whether it be a regularly traveled road or one hacked t of the forest in a hun for the P The ‘women of Marin County also are heroic. In each of the forest fires that there have been some of them have done work that would have quailed many a manly heart, and they did it too without hope of reward or thought of even grati- tude being expressed. In Larkspur and Corte Madera there are not many men around during the day. All the morning they drop aw: to the busy city, trainload after trainload, until when the “bankers’ train” departs at 10 o'clock or thereabouts the little towns are practically deserted. So the women ¥ match is the Calif readily, b semi-éxplosive percentage of punge foliage. ‘About one huy the fall a r § the wood the rain not n it would taken more than a page to tell of fire. have that