Fighting Forest Fires in Bossier Parish

One of the great draws to Bossier Parish, and Louisiana writ large, is our natural landscapes present here in the state, as seen in our lovely Bayou Bodcau and Lake Bistineau. This also goes hand-in-hand with the large timber industry here in the region, one of the primary agricultural exports of Louisiana. However, as many readers will probably be aware, the Northwest Louisiana region is currently (as of the time of writing this article) experiencing drought and high winds, and as such this area is facing increased fire risk. These fires can be devastating to both the natural beauty and the economic output of the parish, so therefore, what better time to write history of fighting fires here in Bossier Parish.

Initially, under the Louisiana Forestry Commission (created in the 1940s with a mission, in part, of preventing and extinguishing forest fires) the state was divided into several different districts of which Bossier Parish fell into district four. This fire district also included Caddo, Webster, Red River, Bienville, and the northern half of Natchitoches Parishes, and was headquartered in Minden, Louisiana. The initial infrastructure revolved around the installation of lookout towers, telephone wires, and strategically placing fire teams in areas where the risk was elevated. A not insignificant amount of this infrastructure was assembled by the Civilian Conservation Corps, with over thirty fire watch towers and several thousand miles of telephone wire to their name in Louisiana alone.

There were three year-round operated fire watch towers (located near Plain Dealing, Bellevue, and atop Giddens Hill near Haughton), with a fourth operated in a six-month span (located near Bolinger, which was north of Plain Dealing). These towers were tall 100-foot-high steel structures, built to provide the fire watchers with clear sightlines across the parish to look for signs of fire. They did this first by watching for the aforementioned signs, such as smoke, and calling to the other towers within the parish to confirm they see it too. Once this was done, the watcher then aligned his ‘alidade’ (the name of the tool sitting atop a firewatcher’s map to determine the angle of the fire from the tower), and conferred with his fellow watchers to get the angle from their towers. Once this was done, it was a simple matter of triangulating the location of the fire using string, allowing the fire watchers to accurately pin-point the location of the incident. All that was left was to deploy the firefighting teams assigned to each tower. These teams, one at each of the three primary year-round towers, were three-man crews equipped with the best equipment of the time for fighting these forest fires. Indeed, according to the July 5, 1946, edition of The Plain Dealing Progress, Louisiana was the first state to acquire the wartime model Jeep as a tool for fighting these blazes.

 

However, the best firefighting method isn’t extinguishing the flame, but preventing it from being lit in the first place. Therefore, Louisiana instituted penalties for anyone found to be conducting arson or obstructing fighting forest fires, and these penalties range from fines to jail time depending on the severity of the crime. Sometimes, however, these fires are accidental or environment, and preventing these fires is a wider community effort. As such, refer to any pertinent burn-bans or weather warnings, and report smoke to the emergency services immediately.

If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. The History Center is currently closed until further notice, though staff remains available. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Images: 

• Fire Watch Tower in District 4 (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• Examples of Fire Fighting Equipment (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• How the Forestry Service Finds Fires (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• How the Forestry Service Finds Fires (The Shreveport Times, Mar, 2, 1947)
• Louisiana Fire Jeeps Put in Service (The Plain Dealing Progress, Jul 5, 1946)

Article by: Jonah Diagle