TRAMPERS’ ORDEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26632, 1 December 1947, Page 4

TRAMPERS’ ORDEAL

TRAPPED BY SCRUB FIRE BATTLE TO SAVE HUT Daily Times Special Service AUCKLAND, Nov. 30. Desperate and successful efforts to save the popular Mangatepopo Hut from destruction during a scrub fire in the National Park area last week were made by a party of seven students from Auckland University College and four members of* the Chateau staff under the leadership of Mr A. V. Salmon. Situated in the Mangatepopo Valley, the hut is the camping place for climbers at Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. Many thousands of acres of scrub and tussock were destroyed by the fire, which approached the hut on a very fierce four-mile front. Five minutes after the party arrived they were trapped by the flames which swiftly encircled the hut and many hours of extreme heat and intense smoke passed before the men succeeded in making it reasonably safe by digging out the tussocks around the building and burning them. The fires raged near the hut all night/ sending up huge showers of sparks, and a close watch was kept by the party. By daybreak the fires had died down, but a few hours later they broke out in several places near the hut and the party’s work did not end until noon.