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seem vague in my recollection, but one thing made a graphic im-
pression-the actual fighting of the fire. Because the fire equipment
was stored in the burning building, we ran around frantically and
helplessly looking for some means to prevent the adjoining structures
and dense woods from catching fire. Finally, someone screamed, "Get
the waste paper cans from the cabins! We'll make a bucket brigade!"
I had never had any cause to consider the operation of this kind of
cooperative movement until that second, but we quickly established
a rather fruitless one. I can still remember the feeling of literally
throwing those half-filled cans of water from the lake, up the line to
the burning area-can after can after can. I recall the sickening sensa-
tion of the water slashing all over my body and remember vaguely
observing that I still had my wristwatch on my arm, submerged well
under the water level. But that didn't matter then.

And the air-if one could call it that-its dark gray weight felt
heavy on my stinging eyes, mouth, and nose. The heat from the
building radiated in all directions and made my damp clothes feel
alI the more saturated.

Dazed as I was by shock and fear, I remember observing how
little the rest of the world around us was affected. The shiny reflec-
tion in the mirror-like water looked like some massive ground fire-
works display. The bright noonday sun glared unsympathetically
down upon the scene of the virtual inferno. The only objection from
nature came from the incessant chattering of disapproval by birds
robbed of the branch perches by the roar and crackle of the tongues
of crimson flames on the surrounding' trees.

I don't know how long we fought the blaze alone, but sometime
later, some firemen arrived in motorboats with portable pumps and
hoses which they operated to replace our inefficient bucket brigade.
Abandoning that, we then took our water-filled buckets, and with
brooms, literally beat out the surrounding fires that crept under the
brush and roots of trees. Many times little flames no larger than a
wooden match would suddenly break through the very soil on which
you stood, challenging you to defeat its fervor.

After what must have been an infinite afternoon, the danger of
the further spread of the fire was halted, leaving the central part of
the camp as bare as the water it bordered. Night came. It was not
much different than the dark haze of the day and made gaping holes
into innocent shadows where buildings had stood eight hours earlier.
Lighting facilities had been severed, but strangely enough, no one
used a flashlight or lit a match-to view the havoc that the afternoon

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