Excerpt below is from the 1887 Report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands of Ontario.
Reports are at Access Annual Reports Online
The system of FireRanging, inaugurated in 1885, continues to give satisfactory results. The number of FireRangers in the field last season was fifty-five, as compared with forty-five in 1886, and thirty-seven in 1885.
The cost of the service this year is $15,000 as compared with $9,847.75 in 1886, and $7,911 in 1885; these figures show an increased desire on the part of the licensees to avail themselves of the benefits of the service. The past season has been the most expensive so far, which is accounted for by its being a very dry one. Those engaged in the lumber trade report it as the driest and most dangerous season within recollection.
Mr. William Mackey of Ottawa, an old and successful operator, reports that in his experience of forty-two years he remembers nothing like it. As before reported, the Rangers are selected by the lumbermen, and if approved, appointed by the Department which pays them, collecting half the cost from the licensees at the end of the season. The staff selected in the way described has each year proved practical, prompt to act, and energetic in discharging its duties. The joint supervision by both the Department and the licensees ensures the utmost possible vigilance.
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The Rangers have authority to call in assistance to prevent or subdue bush fires where necessary, paying for the same at fair wages. In 1885 and 1886, the expense incurred for assistance was not large as tires were not numerous nor the seasons especially dry; this year is the first in which the fighting of fires has had to be systematically undertaken and the organization has proved quite sufficient for the emergency.
The Rangers have called on assistance wherever necessary and gangs of men have battled with the "devouring element" day and night in various parts of the Province, and successfully stayed its progress in many instances; as many as 100 men in addition to the regular Rangers, have been on duty at different periods; it is not, therefore, to be wondered that the service has cost more than was estimated.
As the dry weather continued very late in the autumn it was not possible to get all the accounts in, checked and paid, ere the close of the year, nor the refunds collected; $10,770.03 only of the cost appears in this year's Public Accounts, leaving $5,000 to be paid next year; to meet which, it is proposed to ask an increase of the estimate for this service from $10,000 to $15,000. The net cost of the service to the Department will, however, be $7,500 with the licensees refunding half as before stated.
In addition to protection to licensed lands, it was arranged last season and this, to have the Rangers on limits adjacent to unlicensed Crown Lands, have supervision over them, especially in the territory lately sold; the reports of the Rangers demonstrated the threat of danger to which the timber of the Crown was exposed, several fires having been from spreading, which without such efforts might and probably would have destroyed millions of dollars worth of timber.
The settlers, I am glad to say, have as a rule shown themselves willing to assist in preserving the forest lands from fire, exercising more care than in the past and assisting to suppress fires when called out by the Rangers.
At the close of each season it has been customary to enquire of the Licensees how many Rangers they had employed; how many fires had occurred; the quantity of timber damaged or destroyed, and the amount of the loss actually sustained. Also the causes of the fires and what could be done to make the service more effective. I regret to say that the replies in 1885 and 1886 were not as full as could have been desired, but this year the questions were answered fully by nearly forty of the largest limit holders in the
Province; from these it would appear the service is doing more than was expected. They report fifty-five Rangers employed; 110 distinct fires by which 200 millions of feet board measure of pine was badly injured, and place the actual loss at figures totalling $70,000.
There is no doubt that the presence of the Rangers, and the prompt and active measures taken by them, materially prevented and substantially reduced the losses—not only so, but the Licensees were supplied with reliable information as to the quantity of timber damaged, its situation, and the force necessary to handle it this season before the grubs had time to seriously damage it, by which an enormous sum was saved to the Province and the Licensees.
The replies received all approve the service and ask its continuance and extension; even those who have not taken advantage of it admit its value and good effect. The suggestions as to making the service more effective are, while not numerous, eminently practical. Those who have Rangers on their limits, urge with much fairness and force, that it should be made incumbent upon the tenure of a license to have the territory covered by it guarded by a FireRanger. As it frequently happens, they say that bush fires break out on limits where there is no Ranger, and the Rangers on adjoining territory have to go there and battle with the fire to prevent it from becoming uncontrollableand spreading over on the limits of their employers. It is also suggested that settlements on pine lands should not be permitted, which it may be stated, is not now allowed by the Department.
Some other trifling suggestions are made, all in the direction of closer supervision, but none are of such a character as to require legislation - the present Fire Act giving ample authority to meet all the suggestions made.
The principal causes of fires are stated to be lack of care on the part of settlers clearing land, in setting fire to their choppings without respect to the surroundings or
state of the weather, frequently doing so at an extremely dry time, and in a high wind — river drivers making fires for cooking, smudges, etc., and leaving them uncared for instead of extinguishing them—careless hunters, fishermen, tourists and explorers making fires in most dangerously inflammable localities, and going away, leaving them to be fanned into, perhaps vast conflagration, should a breeze spring up; and their throwing down, in dry brush or leaves, matches used in lighting a pipe, and in one instance, a considerable fire is stated to have arisen from smouldering gun wadding. In one or two cases, sparks from locomotives are cited as a source of danger.
In conclusion, I desire to point out what a dangerous state of affairs is shown to exist, and the consequent necessity for taking every step possible to reduce it to a minimum. When it is remembered that the careless throwing down of a match might cause millions of dollars worth of the timber wealth of the Province to vanish in smoke, the necessity is emphasized for disposing of Timber Berths as soon as danger is threatened by the advance of settlement, as by such sale the bonus is at any rate obtained, and a closer supervision had over them than the Crown could give.
The fires were confined to the eastern or settled portion of the Province, no fire of serious extent having been reported in Algoma, Thunder Bay or Rainy River Districts.
It is proposed to continue the service during the coming summer upon the same principles as heretofore, and to use every effort to make it successful.
