---
title: Forest fires aid the enemy, be sure your match is out
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/forest-fires-aid-the-enemy-1943/
description: 'Wartime fire-prevention poster: a large painted hand holding a burnt match, under the red headline ''Forest Fires Aid the Enemy'' and the line ''Be sure your'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Forest fires aid the enemy, be sure your match is out

[![Forest fires aid the enemy, be sure your match is out, 1943 US poster: Wartime fire-prevention poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/forest-fires-aid-the-enemy-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/forest-fires-aid-the-enemy-1943.jpg)

# Forest fires aid the enemy, be sure your match is out

Wartime fire-prevention poster: a large painted hand holding a burnt match, under the red headline 'Forest Fires Aid the Enemy' and the line 'Be sure your match is out'. The tell is the link drawn between an everyday careless act and help to the enemy in war.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
FOREST FIRES
AID THE ENEMY
Be sure your match is out
U. S. DEPT. AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE
STATE FOREST SERVICE
[imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-513709]
```

[← For your farm and your country invest in war bonds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/for-your-farm-and-country-war-bonds-1943/) [Forest Fires Aid the Enemy: Crush out your cigarette →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/forest-fires-aid-the-enemy-crush-out-your-cigarette-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)