Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 1 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
WIDESPREAD rain over a 13 county district combined with other factors to ease the fire danger over the weekend, bringing a much needed rest for Virginia Division of Forestry personnel and fire fighting volunteers. The welcome relief came after a 30 day drought during one of the hottest, driest Aprils on record. With temperatures reported in the high nine-, ties and humidities in the low twenties, the forest fire danger was extremely hazardous. The dryness compared with 1963 when over 7,000 acres were scorched by 484. forest fires in District m.
Brian Edson, assistant district forester, in charge of fire control for District m, reported that a total of 254 forest fires burned over 700 acres of forest land in the 13 county area this year. He said, “We have already had over twice as many fires as were reported during the same period last year. The largest fire was an 88 acre blaze in Fairfax County ft&tteved to have been started by some careless campers. However, the average sized fire was held to less than three acres.”
Edson remarked, “The only thing that saved us during this extremely long dry spell was the complete lack of any high winds to fan the fires.” He said, “The
94.6%