PERILOUS DRIVE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 57, 4 September 1926, Page 10

PERILOUS DRIVE

HEMMED IN BY BUSH FIRES

ME. HAROLD GREGSON'S ADVENTURE.

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Pert.") AUCKLAND, This Day. Trapped between two fires on Lake Tahoa, on the Carson highway, • Mr. Harold Gregson, formerly of Auckland, and now director, of the Community Arts Association, and conductor, and organist at the Presbyterian Church at Santa Barbara, California; together with his wife and his mother, Mrs. J. T. May, of New Zealand, had a narrow escape from death recently, says a Californian paper. Mrs. Gregson Buffered burns oh her hands and arms, and the big touring car in. -which .the partywere driving showed evidences of going through the blaze. Leaving Glenbrook, where they had been enjoying an outing for ,two weeks, the party started to ascend the1 King's Canyon to Carson, unaware of the-for-est fire which had' broken ■ out that .morning near the summit. .They passed near the blaze, which s^ept.up the ' hill, but thought nothing of it until several miles further, on they encountered the back fire that escaped the firefighters and was sending a blaze high in the air directly across the highway. Unable to go forward, Mr. Gregson turned his car back up the hill, but in the meantime. the wind ; had' changed, and the fire was roaring down the hill, sending flames upwards of 100 ft in the air.. Barred "by this wall of flames, Mr. Gregson turned his car down the hill again to the back fire, which was still burning fiercely. A fire-fighter, also trapped between the fires, jumped on to the running board, shouting to Mr. Gregson that the only way out was to make a dash through the lower fire at a great speed. The back fire was. burning over an area of about 50yds wide, but Mr. 'Gregson passed it in safety, although he expected every minute that . his gasoline tank would explode. Mrs. Gregson'suffered from shock, and her mother, who is 7'A years of age, was somewhat fearful of driving back to Sacramento over the Truckee highway, along which the fire had been burning for five days.-