CANTERBURY FIRES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 105, 28 January 1935, Page 10

CANTERBURY FIRES

Settlers Fight Fierce Flames NIGHT-LONG VIGIL By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, January 27. A strong nor’-west wind on Saturday caused the fire in the Bottle Lake Plantation, seaward from Christchurch, to break out again. There was a call for men to tight the tire at 10 o’clock, and by 11 o’clock almost every available man in the district was out fighting the Hames. A small bach was burned, but the gravest anxiety was felt for the safety of several bouses which appeared to be in the path of the rapidly approaching lire. From many bouses furniture and belongings were loaded on to waiting trucks. Trenches were dug to stop the Hames, which burned trees, grass, fences and scrub growth, such as gorse and lupins, which are abundant in the district. At times the fire was quite out of control, burning with such ferocity ana spreading so rapidly that tiie beaters could do nothing with it. Trees surrounding the New Brighton racecourse caught fire, and the stands and buildings were in danger, but the fire was arrested before it reached the buildings | Further Outbreak at Brooklands. Early on Saturday evening upward of 50 acres of trees, gorse and manuka scrub at Brooklands, not far from the Bottle Lake fire, were burned. More than 100 men fought the fire, but tbe Hames ran to the tops of the pine trees in a plantation belonging to the Selwyn Plantation Board, and got completely out of control. Only a change of wind kept the fire from other plantations, and drove it into the sandhills, where it was beaten out. About 50 men, divided into parties, fought the fire all night, and by strenuous efforts hud reduced it to a smoulder by daylight. To-day the weather was calm and | cool, and there was no serious recrudescence of fires. This evening a shower is falling, with a promise of more rain. This will allay anxiety.