BIG BURN BEGINS

Taupo Times, Volume III, Issue 105, 29 January 1954, Page 1

BIG BURN BEGINS

TAUPO RECALLS 3946 FIRES Soon after severn o'clock on Monday morning last rising smolce columns north-east of Taupo indicated that the biggest burn in the Taupo Coimtry since the disastrous fires of 1946 was under way. With only light airs blowing the smoke columns during the morning rose almost vertically. By ten , o'clock smoke clouds towering several thousand feet in height, and tipped with suniulus domes glistening in the sun, made a magnificent sight from the town. A "Times" representat. e who visited the scene found i it this initiai part of the burn was in an area of about a thousand acres lying between the Rotokawa Road and the road from the Spa Hotel to the Aratiatia Rapids, ^ and bounded on the north by the connecting road south of the Tauhara Aerodrome. On the road edges pr par; tion had been made for the burn over preceding weeks by cutting and bulldozing trees and scrub and the fire had been started round this prepared perimeter, thus minimising danger of the fire getting away. At intervals Forest Service men were stationea along the road edge with fire-fighting vehicles here and there. Between the Golf Links locality and Tauhara Mountain the scene was reminiscent of the big fire of 1946. In Taupo the sun shone brightly but in this area the smoke pall blocked out .the sunshine eompletely. Radio equipped vehicles were being used to keep those controlling the operation in touch with events and an Auster spotting plane was also on the job. By eleven o'clock it seemed that the men who light the matches had been favoured with good conditions and all seemed to be going well. By twelve noon a great pall of smoke had blocked out Tauhara Mountain from the town, but many of the townspeople seemed hardly aware of the fire. The knowledge that it was a controlled burn made all the difference. The operation is under the control of the Central Fire Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr D. D. Dunn, Conservator of Forests, Rotorua, and has been planned in conjunction with the Lands Development Branch of the Lands Department and the Taupo Borough Council. Some ten thousand acres are to be burned and during the operation the pub|ic will not, as a safety measure, be allowed into the area.