Forest fire protection has been an issue ever since 1885 when Ontario saw its first Fire Rangers ever. At this time there were only 37 rangers, they were sent out from May to October to watch assigned districts in Ontario. They were paid approximately $500 at the end of each season, which was not a whole lot of money in those days, but it was enough to make a living off of.

The Fire Rangers' duties were:

• To travel through their assigned districts looking for fires.
• To keep a record of all their activities from May to October.
• To distribute the Fire Act to settlers, railway men, and others concerned, making sure that they understand and obey it.
• To extinguish any and all fires that they came across in their district and surrounding districts. And be ready to help extinguish any other fires that are reported.
• To turn in reports to district headquarters at the end of each season.

    Following all of the fires in the previous couple of years, in 1896 the number of firefighters grew from 37 to 160. However for some reason the number of fires also increased. Again in 1915, the total number of firefighters grew, this time to 900. For quite a while the number of fires were kept at a minimum, until 1922 however, when the Haileybury fire destroyed 18 townships, 6000 homes, and killed 40 people. At the time this was the worst fire the province had ever seen. It has never been determined how the Haileybury fire started, some suspect arsine, others say that it was probably just an accident commited by a failure to follow the rules of the fire act.

    In 1943 fire control workers were trained to work and protect the forest all year round instead of for just one season. This lead to a pay increase and also a record low of fires in Ontario.

    After a budget cut in 1954, prison labour was introduced to forest protection. This project proved successful, the prisoners were used to cover a 50 mile territory. They were guarded, and were even paid small wages.