Prescribed Burns on the Hoosier
History of Fire in Southern Indiana
Role of the CCC
Fire Wardens
and the History of the Fire Fighters' Service
Infamous Hoosier
Fires
Fire Prevention
and Smokey Bear
Fire Tools and Communication
Lookout Towers
History of
Fire in Southern Indiana
Man has burned Indiana’s forests for centuries. Native Americans used
much of Indiana as hunting grounds and set fire to drive game or improve
forage habitat for big game. Studies from tree rings in the southern part of
the state indicate fire was used on a 5-7 year cycle in much of our forests.
When European settlers came into the region they were more interested in
clearing land for farming than in using the trees that forested our state.
Some trees were sawed and used for homes and farm buildings, but the vast
majority of the trees were cleared and burned. Reportedly, neighboring
farmers got together and had timber burning bees.
There was also a tradition of burning brought to the New World by the
Scotch and Irish settlers. In their homeland these people had regularly
burned the heath to improve forage quality for their livestock. The Scotch
and Irish believed that by burning the forests, they would increase the
amount of forage for their livestock and kill fever germs and varmints. Over
time a culture of spring burning was passed down to generations without
basis or an understanding of the damage they cause.
Cornell Kemper, a Fire Warden in Dubois County, noted that up through the
1950’s, certain areas were known for a culture that encouraged burning the
woods. He noted that well-meaning locals who believed they were keeping down
the number of ticks and snakes continually burned southeastern Martin and
northeastern Orange County’s woods, an area he referred to as Lagenour
Ridge. Kemper remembers the locals being friendly to fire suppression crews,
but never offering to help.
Violet Harrell, wife of a Lawrence County fire warden recalls many fires
were caused in the spring when people were burning off their gardens and
fields. Arsonists were also responsible for many fires. One man, she
recalls, was finally arrested when they discovered he had been setting fires
when he ran out of tobacco. He’d then wait for the firefighters to show up
and then bum tobacco off them.
By 1938, records showed the primary cause of forest fires in Indiana was
the burning of brush piles, fields, fencerows, and ditch banks. Early
“Forest Fires of Indiana” publications provided educational information on
options for burning. The publication had cost comparisons and results of
burning versus plowing or bush hogging in controlling weeds and insects.
Careless smokers were the second major cause of fire starts. Lightening or
other natural causes have always accounted for less than one percent of
forest fires in Indiana. The years during World War II saw an increase in
railroad fires as the supplies shipped by rail increased and the demand for
train resources pushed defective equipment and inexperienced personnel into
service. In 1943 there were 38 fires attributed to railroads, burning 4,054
acres. The war years also saw a constant change-over in personnel that made
it difficult to keep people trained and organized.
Fire Laws In Indiana
In 1905, when the first Indiana State fire laws were passed, according to
reports “there was great rejoicing among the heads of the Conservation
Department at that time”. The Secretary of the Board of Forestry went so far
as to say this was the best piece of forest fire legislation yet passed in
all of America, that it could not help but work, and declared the fire
problem was finally solved.
Time has proven them wrong, but the fire laws were indisputably, an
important early step in fire control.
As Americans became more aware of the impact and costs of wildfires, the
timing was right, in 1921 for the Clark-McNeary Act, sponsored by Senators
McNeary of Oregon and Clarke of New York. This Act allotted funds to the
Forest Service, which were in turn passed on to States who had forests to
protect and who met certain technical requirements.
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District Ranger Anthony Quinkert is shown here prosecuting a fire
trespass case in county court. The State Fire Warden, is providing
evidence to support the case in May 1942. |
Southern Indiana was protected by fire suppression forces, first
organized in 1929. In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Camps were established in the forested areas of the state. The CCC boys,
under the supervision of foresters, immediately assumed fire suppression
responsibilities, and the volunteer organizations languished or played only
a minor role. The availability of the CCC as fire fighters led to a growing
carelessness on the part of people who thought if their fire did get out of
control, the CCC boys would put it out. In fact –several camps were little
more than fire departments in the dry season. Time, which could have been
spent by the CCC in useful construction and maintenance projects, was
instead spent suppressing countless wildfires.
By 1939, Indiana had agreements in place with the Soil Conservation
Service, the U.S. Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service for the purpose
of coordinating fire control work throughout the state. These agreements
have changed over time, but wild fire protection in south central Indiana is
still shared between the U.S. Forest Service and the State of Indiana.
During the War Years, with the closing of the C.C.C. camps and the
expansion of war industries, it became difficult to find manpower of any
kind. To combat the shortage of manpower, many women were employed as
observers on state fire towers. The Indiana Defense Council was called on to
help organize and train civilian defense volunteer forest fire fighters to
hold the line. During this same period, the area surrounding the U.S. Naval
Ammunition Depot in Martin County, the Jefferson Proving Ground near
Madison, and Camp Atterbury near Columbus, was given increased fire
protection. This protection was under provisions of the Sixth Supplemental
National Defense Act and the Clarke-McNary Special Emergency Act that
provided 50 percent of the funds for protecting these critical areas. The
program also trained thousands of high school students and adults for
emergency use in fire fighting.
The CCC
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was the most successful of all
Roosevelt's New Deal programs of the 1930's. It employed men during the
Great Depression era and put them to work in a variety of services. The U.S.
Army ran the CCC camps , but it was the U.S. Forest Service who put them to
work.
On the Hoosier, the CCC crews fought fire, planted trees, developed
habitat for fish and wildlife, constructed roads, bridges, campgrounds, and
lookout towers. During the early days of the Hoosier National Forest, the
CCC served as the primary work force for a skeletal crew of foresters. The
CCC camp, located in Kurtz, not only built the lookout tower at Hickory
Ridge and Dutch Ridge, but also the one at Trinity Springs. They
reconstructed the Tower Road, the Maumee Road, and the old Dutch Ridge Road
(now Highway 446). The rock to build the roads was quarried from what is now
Blackwell Pond. The CCC also built several new homes for local residents who
lived in deteriorating houses.
By 1935 many eastern states had implemented a program of forest fire
wardens. Indiana appointed 65 fire wardens that year. Their
qualifications were that they must be “of high type, well-though-of
citizens, interested in Conservation, and have a car and a telephone.” Each
of these men was to organize and supervise a crew of ten Fire Guards. The
Forest Service also had fire wardens in areas of national forest land.
The forest fire wardens were initially paid twenty-five cents an hour and
five cents mileage for the use of their cars. Their crew of fire guards were
paid fifteen cents an hour while fighting fire. Even in those days, these
were paltry wages and any one who applied was more interested in
conservation than the money the job offers. The pay merely helped compensate
them and make them feel their time and effort was appreciated. There was
some concern that if the pay was increased, it might become profitable for
people to set fire intentionally in order to fight them.
The most important job the fire warden had, other than the actual
extinguishing of the fire, was completing a fire report for each fire in his
area. In 1936, as a result of the fire reports completed, the state had its
first complete figures on causes of fires, number of fires, and acres
burned.
These figures were used in a 10-day educational program held the next
year for all fire wardens and towermen. When coupled with the evolving fire
permit laws, the fire wardens were then expected to help educate their
neighbors and anyone indicating they intended to burn. If a farmer was going
to burn a field, the wardens could explain how he should plow a safety strip
along the edge and back fire from the strip.
As the wardens organized their fire crews across the state, each crew was
equipped with ten fire rakes, one axe, one first aid kit, one crosscut saw,
one five or seven gallon Indian back pack pump, one five gallon Indian
supply tank, and in some cases, four or five beaters where grass fires are
prevalent.
By 1936 a Forest Fire Manual was printed and distributed to these men.
This manual contained various information including diagrams on fighting
fire under different circumstances, fire statistics, and information on fire
tools, including how to make tools from scraps:
Forest Fire Fighters Service
The Forest Fire Fighters Service (FFFS) was one of five basic Civilian
Defense Groups established by the Office of Civilian Defense in Washington
D.C. during World War II. The FFFS included high school students and
civic organizations.
These volunteers were trained in fighting wildfire, but their training
also included conservation, wildlife preservation and general forestry. A
volunteer is required to complete a minimum of twelve hours training and
then be approved by the State Coordinator and State Civilian Defense
Director. The Civil Air Patrol also contributed many hours of service during
the war years by spotting fires in areas where no detection system was
present and dropping fire prevention messages at high schools to be
distributed to the students.
High school
boys who fought fire were generally not paid, they were just happy to get
out of school. Here boys are being shown how to use a Kortick Tool (now called a
McCloud) to clear line, and a “swatter” to smother fires burning in grass.
The storage compartment in the center of the photo was of the type each
Forest Service fire warden had to store the tools use by volunteers in his
area.
The system of fire wardens worked well for the state through the 1950’s.
It was gradually disbanded in the early 1960’s as rural fire departments
organized to take a larger role. The last fire warden on the Hoosier was
Dale Harrell, who lived near Heltonville.
Click here for Dale's story and more information on
fire wardens.
Shown below is a composite of fire wardens on the Hoosier in
1950. They are identified as (excuse the misspellings the writing was
difficult to read) -- (left to right) Top Row: Karl O'Harrell, Bush Taylor, Jesse Frakes, Levi
Lagrange
Center Row: Maurice Reed, Emory Hendershot, Quneton
Goyes, Victor Gibson
Bottom Row: Ernest Harding, Willie Van Winkle, Norman Goyes, Russell Etienne
To request more information, or for comments or suggestions, you may contact us at:
r9_hoosier_website@fs.fed.us
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