For DemoTex: Stories about the Great Fire of 1910

[jmowreader]

Everyone else may enjoy these too, but since DemoTex is sitting in a lookout tower guarding us from fire, he should especially like these.

In August 1910, the worst forest fire in US history (my dad, who worked for the US Forest Service for several decades, has studied forest fires, and has worked a lot of forest fires, believes it's the worst forest fire in the history of the world) hit North Idaho. It killed a lot of miners and burned off millions of acres of prime timber. This is my paper's reporting...

Trial by Fire: http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_001e5099-06a6-5047-a05c-dee7593a52eb.html
This is the story of Ranger Ed Pulaski, who led a 45-man crew that was about to be burned up. Now, check out what this fucking guy did: He was a miner who knew the area very well, and he knew there was an exploratory mineshaft very close to his crew. So, he ran them into the mine shaft, put them on the floor, pulled out a revolver and promised to kill any man who attempted to leave. 39 of those men walked out of the mine.

'Ghost Cedars' stand vigil: http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_de175571-4920-5098-b3d0-45f51a1caf91.html
Among other things, it talks about some red cedar snags that were left from the fire 100 years ago, and which are protected as monuments by state law.

All the firefighters who died in the fire are buried in a circle at Woodlawn Cemetery in St. Maries. I've been there and it is even creepier than one would normally expect from a cemetery. Several of the men's headstones read "Unknown." None have dates of birth. All just say where they died and when.

[LiberalLoner]

1. That hit in western Montana, too....there was a display last year at

Ft. Missoula about the Great Fire of 1910.

[jmowreader]

2. Yeah, it basically burned up the Inland Northwest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910

There is a logging term: slash. Basically, it's all the crap you cut, or "slash," off the trees while harvesting them--all the branches, little pointy ends you can't use for lumber (this was before the paper mill at Lewiston was built, of course), whatever. The state said you had to burn slash. The loggers, who hated to waste time on shit like burning slash, would remove the spark arrestors from the locomotives they used to pull logs out of the woods and set the whole forest on fire to solve the slash problem. This is one of the things that started the Great Fire--it's not the whole cause, but one of the larger ones.

[pinboy3niner]

3. I think DemoTex has Mrs. DemoTex on his mind right now

But I think he'll enjoy your post when he gets around to it. :)

A daughter of the head of the National Park Service babysat my son years ago, and a VN vet friend used to be a smokejumper. So, I have absolutely no credentials when it comes to firefighting. :)

It sounds like your dad knows this subject very well, having both lived it and studied it. He sounds like someone DemoTex would probably love to sit down and talk with.

DemoTex's reports from the tower--with his stuning photos--are fascinating. I'm looking forward to his book about his tower experience. And if anyone can tell it--and show it--I think it's him.