BUSH FIRES.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3759, 14 January 1881, Page 3

BUSH FIRES.

Adelaide, Sunday. Mr M'Carthy arrived at Wallaroo to-day in an open boat, with the charred remains of his wife and five children. The fire is described as being terrific, for even the kangaroo dogs were unable to get away from it. The fire originated in the neighborhood of Boothby, and was not expected to come near M'Carthy s, but at Carp, sixteen miles " south-west from Franklin Harbor, the wind changed, and the fire came along like magic, burning up everything. M'Cartby tried to gel to his home, but was driven back, and being to leeward of a piece of tallow land accounts for his escape and that of his four sons.- ■ , , c In the south-east, yesterday, bush fires did great damage on several runs. On Ellis'Ooola station, near Benara, a store, wooded, aud men's hut, with contents,

a'so the yards and a great length of fencing and grass were burnt. The loss is stated to be £2000. A large quantity of grass and fencing was destroyed on Whinharn's Benara estate, and Mr Albert Plate had a stone cottage burnt on the adjoining land. On Captain Gardiner's Mount Schank estate thirty thousand acres of grass, fifteen miles of fencing, and a few sheep" were destroyed. A considerable quantity of grass and other property on Mrs Crow's Nimgbool Run, and on the lands of Messrs Templeman, Gully, Keogh, Ryan and Eilsby, farmers, have also been destroyed. A fire near Glenelg River lias swept over a large tract of pastoral country. The fires are not quite 'nt yet. During a thunderstorm yesterday, the lightning ran along the wires of the fence belonging to Thomas Walters, farmer, Mount Gambier, and burnt holes in some of the posts and split others, and ignited the grass alongside.