"SIXTEEN MILES OF FLAME."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1710, 29 March 1913, Page 6

"SIXTEEN MILES OF FLAME."

Auckland, March 28. The "Herald's" special reporter at Paparoa telegraphs that huge bush and grass fires, 16 miles in width, are sweeping over the Otamatea district. It is doing a' vast amount of damage, and settlers' homes are only being saved with' the greatest difficulty. The fire appears to have started about a fortnight ago on the hills ■which lie about 25 miles north of Paparoa. It burned at intervals-untel Sunday last, when; a north-east wind fanned, the flames, sweeping them southwards at an alarming rate. This week its progress has been practically unchecked, and to-day, as the Hon. Fraser and his party drove through the Ruawai and Tahcko district, the smoke in the air was so dense that objccts half a mile away.were not distinguished. To-day settlers from the Ifaretu district estimated the lire to present an almost unbroken front of high flames of 16 miles, while it had left a track of nearly 35. miles of blackened country behind it. Hardly a fence in this area is standing, and, in many cases, the fire has reached the outbuildings of tho homesteads, and destroyed them. A band of fifty settlers were out to-day fighting the flames, and tonight they have separated into groups to watch tho homesteads. ,