Bush Fires Sweep Taranaki District

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 307, 19 March 1928, Page 9

Bush Fires Sweep Taranaki District

FLAMES FANNED BY GALE SETTLERS TAKEN UNAWARES (Special to THE SUN.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Saturday. A serious fire is reported from Rahotu, where a strong wind fanned the flames of burning-off operations, on Friday, and caused the fire to spread along the edge of the Parihaka block. Fanned by the south-easterly wind, the flames swept over a huge area and, according to reports received here, destroyed a 50ft bridge on the Upper Parihaka Road, and also razed several Public Works huts on Wiremu Road. The contractors, who have been cutting timber for bridge-building, had a very anxious time when the fire was at its height. One contractor had to dump his tents and outfit into the river to save it, while another buried- his plant in a clay cutting to protect it from flying sparks. While some dried tree stumps were being burned off by some settlers on the Upper Carrington Road on Friday, a strong south-easterly wind sprang up and the fire spread with great rapidity to farm properties in the neighbourhood. The flames spread toward the Upper Koru district, and farmers in the track of the approaching fire grew anxious for the safety of their fences, haystacks and homesteads. Early in the afternoon the head of the fire reached the Koru mill district, and the mill workers found it difficult to work in the heavy smoke, which came rolling up from the valleys near the course of the Kiri Stream, where the blaze was at its worst. The Kirihau mill school was more directly in the line of the conflagration, and when a part of the school grounds became ignited from flying sparks the children were dismissed. The wind dropped as suddenly as it had risen, and at about 6 o’clock the fire-fighters assumed control of the outbreak, and thereafter kept the flames in check.