Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1948 FIRE MENACE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 26, 29 November 1948, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1948

FIRE MENACE

Considering the sort of weather this district has suffered lately, it might seem a little silly to be talking about the fire menace, but one cannot help hoping that there will be a summer some time this year, so perhaps a word to remind citizens of the dangers of carelessness will not come amiss. A browse through old files / shows that big scrub and grass fires have not been uncommon in this district. Here are some of the headlines—and they are hot all very old ones : SCRUB FIRE, vicinity. Mt. Edgecumbe. PLANTATION DESTROYED —SOO Acres of Grown Trees. DESTRUCTIVE BUSHFIRE— Outbreak at Ohope.. Mr Parry, Minister of Internal Affairs, is repeatedly on record pointing out the danger of fdrs est, scrub and grass fires and, above all, the possibly disastrous consequences of carelessness. The warning applies to all of ■ us. To the smoker who drops a lighted cigarette butt from his car, or knocks out the live ash from, his pipe on the door handle while travelling; to the camper who leaves the ashes of his camp fire glowing; to the housewife who throws the stiU live embers from the kitchen g~ate near imflammable rubbish, or forgets to put the matches out of Junior’s reach. If we are not careful, we are all liable through thoughtfulness : to start something we and our 1 neighbours will regret bitterly. The possibilities mentioned above are not mere speculation. ; Fires have actually been start- : ed from all of those causes, and : by people who are normally re- i garded as responsible, thinking : citizens. ' Point is that, on a matter of ■ this sort, thinking citizens have , to keep themselves thinking all £ the time. Ohope in particular is vulnerable to fire risk in the dry summer months—and some years there have been dry summer > months. • J If there is any place in the £ beach settlement where water is available at pressure, the fact j has not,been widely advertised, t Many of the cottages'have very t scanty supplies of tank water, f

Others rely solely on springs in the hill. Nearly all are closely approached by tracts of scrub, fern and long grass, all highly inflammable when dry. There are County Council bylaws covering the burning of rubbish during the fire-danger season, and residents would be acting in their own interests as well as those of their neighbours if they made a point at all times of co-operating to the limit with the County authorities to see that those by-laws are enforced to the letter.