The fire tower, or fire lookout, was one of the main wildfire-fighting tools of forest services across the world for
much of the 20th century. Most are
small cabins,
alone or placed on
80-foot steel towers; these are then placed on top of peaks, giving them an unobstructed
view of the surrounding countryside. (There are
some exceptions, of course.) Operators in the towers, equipped with binoculars and
firefinders, spent their days searching for smoke or lightning strikes, which would be pinpointed and radioed in for firefighters. (The lookout operators, who staff the towers for a season at a time straight, have a life that is generally pretty
solitary and
quiet, though sometimes rather
intense.) At peak, there were thousands of fire towers across North America; while most of these no longer exist,
a few hundred are still active.
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posted by Upton O'Good
on Mar 2, 2009 -
35 comments
