ENGINE SPARKS AND DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9028, 15 January 1908, Page 5

ENGINE SPARKS AND DISASTER.

FIRE IN UPPER OPAKI COUNTY. GREAT DESTRUCTION OF GRASS AND FENCING. FIGHTING THE FLAMES. That not uncommon cause of grass fires, the railway enaine, was responsible fur several settlers on the Opaki suffering a very trying ordeal yesterday, and also accounted for the loss of many acres of grass and several miles of fencing. Mrs Alex. Baick was standing at the back door of her husband's residence on the Opaki road, to-day, watching tha up express go by. Immediately after it passed she noticed flames spring up in a grass paddock adjoining the lina— about three hundred yards from the farm's nearest paddock to the lino. She immediatelyacquainted her husband, of the fret, and in a very few minutes a £.a»g uf abiut a dozen men were busy, euieavouring to chsck the prcgress of a line of flames with a fire front of about four hundred yards. The effort was vain, however, and all that could be done was to prevent the spreading of the fire to adjoining paddocks. Fanned by a light north-easterly breeze, the flames spread with incredible rapidity along the already sun-frizzled pasture lands into one of Mr Buick's best grass-paddocks, one hundred acres in extent, through Mr P. W. Gaskin's twenty-five-acra oat crop, lying neatly stoo&ed ready to be garnered to-morrow, and through no less than two hundred acres of the latter's grass paddocks also. The flames also found their way on to Mr Rummer's land, but the lack of grass and the assistance of an energetic band of farm hands and settlers prevented much damage being done on the latter gentleman's property. The amazing speed at which the flames, raced over the fields makes it difficult to understand how Mr Gaskin's residsnce and outbuildings, standing right in the track of the fire, were not consumed. The flames, judging by the charred ground around the homestead, must have actually lickeJ the piles and lower timbers, but no damage was done. The progress of the fir? wa-3 effectually arrested by t'ho edge of the steep bank being reached on the brow of which Messrs Kummer and Gaskin's residences stand, and along the foot of which the Waipoua river winds for a considerable distance. Even here the flames crept down the brushwood for some distance, but as the downward | progress of the fire was slow, the fire-fighters were able to obtain a mastery of the conflagration. The amount of damage sustained by the settlers chiefly affected is very considerable. Mr Buick's loss of a hundred acres of grass is not to be compared with the serious damage to his fencing, over five miles of which have been destroyed. Mr Gaskin also loses miles of valuable fencing, and out of his three hundred acres of grass only about sixty acres are left to him. Mr Kuinmer's loss is not serious, amounting, roughly, to about £lO, and other settlers have sustained similarly small losses. The fire was not unnuticed by the officials on the train, as on arrival at Opaki a telegraphic message was despatched from the station to Masterton, and a gang of railway hands wero immediately despatched to assist in extinguishing the fire. Sensational reports were current in town as to the amount of damage done by the fire. The County offices were rung up to be informed that the bridge over the Waipoua on the Upper Opaki road had been destroyed, and also that Mr Rummer's residence had succumbed to the flames. The "Jubilee" engine was despatched from town, but of course it could do nothing. There are still a few 4 stray fencing posts burning, but no danger may be apprehended from these, as there is little likelihood of the flames crossing the civer.