HOUSE LOST IN GRASS FIRE

Chronicle (Levin), 9 January 1948, Page 7

HOUSE LOST IN GRASS FIRE

OTHER RESIDENCES SAVED BY .//; STRENUOU S EFFORTS 'CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 8. Sweeping rapidly across 'taany acres j of itinder dry pasture, a fire this after- ] nbon'destrpyed the six roomed house o£ | Me33rs W. A. and J. T. Andrews and its mtbuHdihgs in Buchanans Road. j Spckburh, and menaced about six j bthpr. houses. • The fire was first noticeu I abo'ut 13.45. p'elock. It swept across a j big rpaddock of tall dry grass towards a | big/single • storey • wooden house anu j prepafatipns were made by tlie occu-. j pathtSj iMrs. E. M. Richardson and her j gixLyoung children, to evacuate/ ,it. Hovrever, a big team of voiunteer beaters.. checked the fire only a few feex j from the house. ! .' The .fife was noticed b'y ,the pilot o± | Hafvard' aircraft, Warrant Officer R. W. Raharuhu, 'of • Wigram, who commuhicated' with the Wigram air statibn by ! radio and about 4 o'clock two fire teu- | d^rs . and 60 men were sent from tlie j statiofi. The Islington Freezing Workqs i brigade also assisted and tliere were seorps of civilian helpers. Laclc oi water proved a difiiculty and limiteo ; quantifies were brought up in tanlcs on j lorries. In spite of strenuous efiorts by the fire .fighters, the wiiid carried the, fire iSiviftly towards a fairly closely settlecl i-block, ' creeping almost to the wall oi a small bungalow' occupied by Mr. R. DawSon, at 33 Buchanans Iioad. At ;the~ back of Mr. Dawson 's house is a =wo.pden tank stand. The fire fighters .uioiinted the tank and were taking out buckets of water, wlxen the structure caught fire, The outbr^ak was clfecked withotit much trouble and the liouse it:self -escaped with a scorehing. -.Meanwhile the fire had been spreading through gorsc, pasture and rnaerocarpa hedges towards houses occupied ,by . tlie Andrews Brothers, Misses E. Smith,' L. Cavalier and L. Edvvards. A'bout six fowlhouses at the back of the Andrews' house were destroyed and the back of the house started blazmg ;fierceiy. Wheo Mr. W. A. Andrews aoiiced that his house was ablaze lie flftempted to save some of the contents but it was impossible. Neighbours fescued a young thoroughbred horse from a stable-and also a cow. Tlie 'house 'was burned to the ground \vithin ■ 20;niinut,es. The hoiise and its contents Vsre covered by insurances. Eire th^eatened the .Cavalier 's liouse and-stables behind it. Four tliorough5red horses whicli Mr. Cavalier had in his ch'srge, Ned Kellv, General Argosy, Artf'ul .Maid aud a young gelding, were faken 'out but the fire was lialted before it teached the buildings. Preparations were made 'to evacuate the Cavalier 's house and clothing and. some furniture vvere taken out. The fire fighters stood by tonight to prevent a revival of the iire. A fire which broke out among lupins and drie'd scrub along the foreshore oi the East Waimairi golf links shortly after 2 p.m. today, swept across open sandhills covered with lupins dried m tfip ,hot weather^ and?- threatened cottRges in Larnach 'Street, the Waimairi Clolf Club's clubhoase and Cauterbury •E_ducation Board's and City CounciJ 's ■pinbs insignis plantations. A .series oi •fortunate wind plmnges averted serions ; jdaipage. ^The; fire/ wh'ich bega'n in the i jSan'dhills-near 'the beach, is thought to ■ liavp been started by a picnic party. It : jSpfestd-iapidTy over a wide front. Soon ! fifter the fire started tlie "fiames feaciied h height of 30 feei and thick smoke was pa.iily visible from' Cathedral Bquare, j ChnstPhurclu ; The fire brigade sont 'tvyo' Pngines and a van to the scene but Ihe 'fireineh were handicapped by almosi i'tPthLlack of water. Employees ^ oi the/;trify cbuncil who are ahvays on stand By/' at this period of tlie year, 'vtp'fq mobilised and-quicklv set to "mak■IngvfirP breaks round the edges of tJie plantlj,'tions. The Nortli Canterbury Gatcliinent Board's stftff and the stall of the Waimairi County Council also took part in the fire ilghting, the number of firefighters being about 200. About 3U0 acres of pinus insignis plantations and pasture were swept In fire at Winston, near Ashburton, today. Two hundred acres of pasture were .burned at Rotherham, Nortli Canterbury, when a spark from a lieader harvester started a fire at Achray station homestead and valuable stud sheep were in danger but 100 fire fighters checked it at the edge of a 40-aere vvlieat field which was in the path of the fire.