A NARROW ESCAPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 382, 25 February 1908, Page 4

A NARROW ESCAPE.

Auckland, February 22

A Star reporter, writing from Taumarunui, says :—At the end of Pipiriki road is Mr Davis’ place. He and his daughter had a terrible time during the fires. They were sitting down to dinner when warning came, and they hardly had time to get out of the house before the standing bush a few chains from the house was a wall of flame. They and a neighbour, Mrs Coutts, who was burned right out, just managed to race along the road aboul a quarter of a mile and find refuge in a big culvert, when the flames followed them and literally enveloped the whole neighbour--1 hood. The smoke came through the culvert (which was big enough for a man to walk in) as through a chimney, and it was only by bathing their faces continually in the water running under their feet that they were able to bear the awful pain. They were in this terrible plight for nearly eight hours, and were only rescued alter dark. Oddly enough, Mr Davis’ house was not burned, although the adjacent woolshed, haystack, fencing and other buildings were reduced to ashes. A few hundred yards past the junction, on the Okura road, lives Mr Connolly, whose woolshed was burned and who lost considerable stock. He and his household took refuge in a good sized stream, with high banks, which runs through the section, and even here they were not safe. Frequently their clothing caught fire from sparks. It was only by dashing water on one another that they escaped with their lives. Their little girl, Cora, about seven or eight years of age, suffered frightfully. They were in the creek for about six hours till the fire abated somewhat.