HUGE FIRES.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 November 1924, Page 3

HUGE FIRES.

AFTER FORTY DAYS’ DROUGHT ACITHALIAN AND N.Z. (lAlir.t ASSOCIATION NEW YORK, Nov. ID. There is a drought throughout the country now approaching its fortieth consecutive day, and is causing tremendous damage through forest fires, which arise everywhere, because the slightest carelessness on the part, of the woodsmen is sufficient to ignite the tinderl ike-forest. The damage is inestimable, but it will easily run into millons of d illnrs. The States suffering most me New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia and California. Tlie flames cover a wide radius, destroying forests, burning villages and paralysing motor traffic, since the diivors aro dreading envelopment by the shifting winds. Most of the States have suspended all limiting licenses, while redoubling their efforts to cheek the fires. The task often appears hopeless, and armies of lire fighters frequently suffer heartbreaking experiences in seeing the wind shift just after a blaze has been got within control, thus scattering fire brands in a hundred now directions.

’The prison officials in several localities have permitted the inmates to help check the llames. Rich men are offering attractive wages to enlist itinerant labour to save their large estates.

The seasonal damage appears to he greatest in the Southern Slates, where the fires have destroyed vast areas of garden, truck and crops, upon which the large cities of thp East depend lor their winter supplies. Meantime numerous rural communities assemble in the churches daily praying for rain. Others have contracted the so-called rain-makers, and not ably an individual named Hatfield. Army experts continue experiments in sen tiering electrified sand into the < feuds from aeroplanes, but these, when successful, relieve only a limited a ren.

The Forestry Service r>Hi<-i;i 1.-< sin* broadcasting appeals to the campers to avoid carelessness, hut it is recognised that rain alone can counteract the ■wood-land menace.