A SERIOUS FIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 February 1928, Page 3

A SERIOUS FIRE

illy Telegraph—-Per Press Association.) A UOK I. \ NO. Keb. 10. A lire swept a huge area on the Tearolia Mountain last night. I* or some hours anxiety was felt for the sa fid v of the building, on Ibe mil skirts "I tin- town. Hundreds of acres of picturesque bii.-Ji and scrub were destroyed. At 10 p.m. when the risk to the town seemed over there was a wall of flttmo a mile long making its way up the gully near Bald Spur. The water reservoir on the hill was endangered mid the fears of the residents were aggravated, by the failure of tbo electric light. The fire orignated in the Bnakaka suburb, where blackberry was being burned off. At -t.45 p.m. when the alarm was given the (lames reached 30ft. in height and jumped a creek and crossed two wide tracks. Ashes began to fall over the town as sheets of flame rushed through the dry hush hut the wind carried the sparks a "'ay from the residential area.

Trainer’s sawmill was in the centre of the outbreak and the lire fighters had to salvage the equipment. The bus'll surrounding the mill was demolished rapidly before a wall of fire with a frontage of nearly a mile and a-hnlf. The mill was saved but tbe (ire laid waste practically all the bush in which the plant is dependent. ’I lie mill engine and waggon were dragged to safety down the mill track, a.s it was feared the clearing might not prove sufficient to break the fire.

It seemed as if the workers might be cut off from escape by n sudden change of wind, hut a lull at a critical moment avoided Ibis danger. As the flames spread through the thick hitdi several houses were menaced, hut were saved hv a change in the direction of the wind. At 10.30 p.m, the fire-lighters concluded that the outskirts of the town were safe and ceased work for the night. A BURNING MOUNTAIN. FOREST DESTROYED. AITK L \ ND. I-Vh. 10. The fire reported at To Aroint mountain had exhausted itself by midnight, though at one lime there was a circle of flames six miles in lirciinilerenee. and every gully and mountain recess was a raging inferno. This morning the mountain appeared as a charred peak. There wore numerous smoking trunks of trees, grim remnants of one of nature's most beautiful collection of trees amt shrubs that hail taken scores of years to grow. M lien the fire ascended one peak exceeding three thousand feet, it gradually died out. having apparently absorbed all Hie lighter growth during its transit across the mountain.