The Price of Reckless Fire in the Forest

The damage to property in this State during the past fortnight by forest fires, which fortunately have been extinguished or in a large measure checked by the rains of the past two days, brings conspicuously to the attention a matter of great importance. Every year in this State thousands, and in some years millions of dollars worth of property—standing timber, mills and farm buildings, and occasionally entire villages—are swept out of existence. The exasperating feature of these forest fires is the fact that in nearly every instance the most simple and ordinary measures of caution on the part of whoever is responsible for starting them would have prevented their occurrence. In ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, their origin is directly traceable to gross and utterly inexcusable carelessness or negligence, and in the hundredth case to wilfulness. The most prolific sources of forest fires are locomotives, brush burners, campers, and sportsmen. As regards the railroads, modern science has provided appliances for arresting sparks and rendering them harmless, and the State should permit no train to be run without one wherever its authority extends. The other classes are more difficult to deal with, as many of them are ignorant and shiftless, and a still larger proportion care little for laws of any kind so long as they can violate them without fear of punishment. Nevertheless, there should be laws, as in fact there are, holding the originator of fires strictly responsible for all damage caused by or resulting from his carelessness and stupidity.