SCRUB FIRE NEAR MATATA MENACES WATER SUPPLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 50, 7 February 1949, Page 5

SCRUB FIRE NEAR MATATA MENACES WATER SUPPLY

Sweeps 200 Acres Of Rough Hills

Before it was controlled by a County Council gang with the assistance of the State Forestry Service, a fire at the back of Matata spread over some 200 acres of scrub land on Friday. At one stage it seriously menaced the township’s water supply and threatened to endanger outlying houses. Returning towards Matata in a truck in which he had been running metal on the Matata-Rotorua road about 10.30 a.m. Friday, Mr H. Hitchens, County foreman in that area, noticed a fire raging in fern and scrub at the back of the Whakatane County Council’s dam that serves Matata’s 400-odd reticulated buildings. It must have broken out suddenly, for there had been no sign of it when the truck in which he was travelling had passed there earlier. Having sent a-telephone message to the Council’s office in Whakatane for assistance, Mr Hitchens and two other County workmen hastened into the rough hill country to try to cut a break and control the fire’s rapid spread. It jumped their break and swept inexorably towards the dam, close beyond which lay the outskirts of the town. Three grim and sooty toilers were delighted to see Mr B. Dodds, the County’s assistant engineer, with a further 9 County men and the information that 13 Forestry workers were on their way. By 6 p.m. an efficient fire break had been established and the flames beaten out. Heavy rain that set in about that time completed the job and made certain the fire could not break out again. .