RECENT BUSH FIRES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 339, 22 February 1911, Page 3

RECENT BUSH FIRES.

SWEEP A MILE OF COUNTRY. SETTLERS NARROW ESCAPE. ONE HUNDRED SHEEP LOST. Our Moeatoa correspondent sends us the following graphic description of the recent bush tires which occurred in his district:

Tremendous second (ires have swept the country adjacent to the Poniorangi, and several settlers have been burnt out.

The holdings of Messrs Neil Neilsen and Messrs Lund Bros., which had been felled for two or three seasons, went up like a lighted torch. A heavy gale of wind blew the sparks from tree to tree, and in an hour and a half the fire had swept a mile in a straight line across the clearing. There was no time to muster the sheep in the home paddocks, so they were rushed up the road, where they were protected by the green, standing bush.

Fortunately Messrs Lund and Neilsen had been expecting a second fire, or their losses would have been very severe. As it was, over one hundred sheep were burned to death. Many trees, burned at the roots, have fallen across the roai between Mangaohae and Pomorangi. Messrs Goldfinch and McLean had a narrow escape from what might have been a serious accident. They were driving sheep along the Pomorangi road away from the second fires that were raging, when a tree, burned out at the roots, came suddenly down across the road, killing six sheep instantly and just missing Mr Goldfinch by a few feet. It is said that tremendous fires have swept the Eatanui township, on the Pungarehu road. Our Kaeaea correspondent writes : —• Great bush fires have been raging from Kaeaea right through the Waitewhenua, and in places almost everything has been burnt, —logs, stumps and grass. One man had the misfortune to get sevreal sheep burnt. At times several dwellings were in danger, but I think it is past now.