BLAZING BUSH

Levin Daily Chronicle, 26 March 1918, Page 4

BLAZING BUSH

THRILLING - EXPERIENCES.

(From tie Auckland '' Star. Communication with, outlying districts, which have been completely isolated, is being gradually established, A number of people in these districts are still unaccounted for. _Mr Akerson, who with his wife and child were found burned to death, had a farm at Mangaituri, about seven miles from Baetihi, and they were surrounded by a holocaust of fire. The search party found that the fire had swept everything, and all that remained of the farm and property were piles of ashes, a few blackened timbers, and the bones of sheep. . . Details which continue to come in indicate that even Dante's inferno would be a paradise to the experiences of many settlers. Refugees from one valley only escaped in clothes hurriedly put on, with faces blackened and eyes blinded with smoke. One man, with his wife and three children, tried to save their house, but failed, and was surrounded by flames. The eldest child was only four years old. The man took one child on his back, and one under each arm, and, followed by his wife, rushed across blazing sawdust, while the hurricane drove of blazing sawdust against them. It is a miracle how they escaped. They dashed through, and made for the stream some distance away, where they crouched from 2 in the morning till the afternoon "before they were able to get out. When rescued the man broke j down with the re-action and could only ejaculate: "My God, fancy seeing any of you alive again I" Another man heard horses screaming with agony in a corner of a paddock, hemmed in by flames. He went out in the dense smoke, ,and jisked his life to save them. He got vf the fence, and followed the wires along till he came to the terrified horses. He succeeded in breaking the fence down, but the horses were too terrified to go through. He had to catch one and lead it through, when the others followed and dashed away through the smoke. The man arrived back practically blind from smoke and heat, and at the point of complete exhaustion. THE WORST HtTRKIOANE. Men who had lived in tropical islands and in America state that the worst hurricane they ever experienced was nothing to this. Green macrocarpa trees were torn out by the roots, and whirled along the ground ablaze with heat, tops were torn off blazing trees and carried many yards. People who buried clothes and goods one foot underground found their belongings charred with the heat. THROUGH FLAME AND SMOKE. A man named Moir was dreadfully burnt about the face and hands, and had to be taken to the Wanganui Hospital. He was fencing when he found the flames approaching. . He only fully realised his predicament when he tried to es.cape, ,and discovered the flames all round him. Before he had gone very far he was practically blinded with the heat. The skin was peeling from his face, and he could only see by holding one eye slightly open with Ids finger. Once he dropped, - and thought he was done. He crawled to his feet again, and after staggering for tw;o miles met some friends, who assisted him to safety. These are only a few of the narrow escapes that are recorded. In a number of instances women and children only saved their lives by crowding into culverts and creeks.