BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18, 1950 FIRE MENACE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 87, 18 January 1950, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18, 1950 FIRE MENACE

Fortunately? this season has been relatively free of grass and scrub fires in this district, but there have been sufficient small outbreaks to warrant a word of warning to the careless. It is everyone’s responsibility to co-operate with fire control organisations and officers in refraining from lighting fires where they have a chance to spread, and to report any outbreaks immediately. Particular care should be taken near buildings. Carelessness in this regard could cost lives. Such things have happened. This has been a dry season, and it is going to take days of ■■ steady rain to eliminate fire j hazards from vacant sections carrying long, dry grass, from hillsides covered with fern and' gorse, from /buildings where water supplies are low. Farmers, in many must light fires to help clear their land. Generally they do so with a full sense of responsibility to their neighbours, having taken all possible precautions to see that the fire does just what they want it to do and no more.

Chief danger at this time comes from picnickers and the travelling public. Glowing embers of last night’s campfire might lay waste valuable timberlands, might even destroy homesteads. A cigarette butt carelessly tossed from a speeding car might destroy crops and fences. Even the ash carelessly knocked from a pipe, or the glowing stub of a used match thoughtlessly discarded, can cause devastating fires. Taking precautions to see that such damage is not done should be regarded by everyone as a civic duty. It takes little time to make sure a cigarette butt is dead before discarding it. There is no trouble involved in making sure a match is out before dropping it. There is not much work involved in preventing fires, but it takes a lot of money and labour to fight them and to restore the damage they do. Indeed, in some cases, complete restoration of the damage is quite impossible.

Here, then, is a thought for campers and picnickers—prevent fires at all costs, and help preserve New Zealand’s beauty and prosperity.