The Vanishing Fire Towers

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In an era of cellphones and satellites, fire lookout towers are used here and there around the state for radio antennas and other communication equipment but their days of standing guard over forests are long gone.

"The vast majority of wildfires are called in via 911," said Scott Hawkins, spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

South Carolina phased out its towers in the early 1990s. Today, only 30 of them remain standing. Two in this area are at Pineville and Adams Run.

"The fire towers are popular. A lot of people have a soft spot for them," Hawkins said.

I'm one of the people with a soft spot, although I suffer vertigo and have never been up in one.

As a child growing up in the 1960's I watched Lassie on TV; not the version with Timmy, but the version where Lassie associated with "Forest Ranger Corey Stuart," helping to pull calves out of quicksand. One of the Jacksonville, Florida TV stations had an afternoon kids' show featuring a "Ranger Hal," whose TV set was a mockup of a fire tower, which he would climb down from to start the show. A highlight of my childhood was when Ranger Hal was the guest of honor at my grandfather's Moose Lodge Christmas gathering; myself and my sister, along with other children, were forced on stage to sing Christmas carols with Ranger Hal.

I believe that out West the towers are still economical because it's cheaper to man them than it is to pay for firewatch flights by airplane. Maybe that has gone by the wayside, too.