Fire Towers and Fire Prevention

Fire Towers and Fire Prevention. Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1475, Camp S-67, Tracy City. For the CCC, fire prevention was a hot topic , A major part of the CCC's mission was wildfire prevention and control, although their training allowed them to be incredibly helpful in fighting all kinds of fires in the communities where they served. In rural America, fire was an ever-present danger, as many still cooked and heated their homes with fire, and most buildings, in the days before building codes and fire resistant building materials, were extremely susceptible to burning., CCC company duties included both rural and urban fire-fighting. They helped fight fires in nearby Palmer, Monteagle and Whitwell. Perhaps most famously, on April 27, 1935, the company saved downtown Tracy City from destruction by a massive fire, later determined to be arson., According to a news report in the Grundy County Herald, "Eighty CCC boys from Palmer, led by Captain Johnson, rushed to Tracy City about midnight and used their expert fire-fighting knowledge to turn the tide of almost certain defeat into victory for (many local businesses) almost certainly would have gone with the others had not exhausted town folks been aided by the CCC boys in their fight against the raging elements., Many fire-fighters, local men and CCC boys suffered burns from flying sparks and flames, and ammonia fumes and smoke caused much discomfort. Lack of adequate water supply and fire-fighting apparatus handicapped the bucket brigades working on rooftops and beside nearby buildings. Danger from falling walls menaced the men at all times and made their job hazardous.., At this time the CCC boys and their helpers did the most valiant work, pouring streams of water on the wooden awnings over the sidewalk, covering windows and wooden surfaces with corrugated tin and canvas sheets kept moist with water...", Company 1475's outstanding work that night endeared the CCC Boys to Tracy City residents, beginning a close working relationship between the community and the company that only grew stronger after Company 1475 moved to its new home at Grundy Forest, about two months later., What were these foundations? , The six block-like concrete structures were anchors for the fire tower that Company 1475 erected here in the mid-1930s. The wider concrete blocks anchored the staircase to the tower. Typically, for each tower, the company would also build a watchmen's cabin at the tower's base. The small concrete pad, to your left, is believed to have held this watchmen's cabin. Look carefully and you'll see a clay-tile pipe in the middle of the far wall, which may have been the drain for a sink., Turn around, look closely at the contour of the ground, near the trail, and you'll notice one corner of a carefully-leveled rectangular area, roughly 40 by 80 feet in size, perfectly proportioned to serve as a multi-purpose outdoor recreational court, where tennis, volleyball or half-court basketball could have been played., Camp inspection reports from 1935 and 1937 listed all of those sports, as well as baseball, softball, football, horseshoes and horizontal bars as outdoor recreational options for the CCC Boys of Company 1475., Photo caption (center, top): The first few fire towers erected by the CCC may have been made of wood, but the U.S. Forest Service, who utilized a great deal of CCC's services, quickly switched over to metal girder towers, many of which still stand today. , Photo caption (center, middle): This is one of the seven fire towers (and accompanying watchmen's cabins) erected by the young men of Company 1475 in locations across the southern Cumberland Plateau in the 1930s. The men of CCC Company 1475 also built dams, roads, trails and even ran telephone lines during the CCC's presence in this area from 1933 to 1942 , Photo caption (center, bottom): Downtown Tracy City following the April 27, 1935 fire. The damage could have been much worse, had the CCC Boys not arrived from Palmer to help fight the blaze. , Photo caption (right, top): The white box in this photo outlines the rectangular leveled area, just behind you, that may have been a multi-purpose recreational court , Photo caption (right, bottom): The CCC took fire safety very seriously. Large 56-gallon barrels, painted black and boldly labeled "Fire Only, were scattered across the Camp. They were always filled with water to be used in the event one of the Camp's wood-frame buildings caught five. How many fire barrels can you see in this photo?