SCHOOL BURNED DOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1939, Page 6

SCHOOL BURNED DOWN

FIERCE GALE IN MARLBOROUGH. CHAIN OF BUSH FIRES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 19. A great deal of minor damage was done along the public works camps on the Soidh Island Main Trunk line between Kaikoura and Blenheim and at one or two points further south by a fierce north-westerly gale which, starting late on Saturday evening, blew at. great force for three hours. The most serious result was the burning of the big camp school at Aniseed. the headquarters camp on the northern sector of the line. A. chain of isolated bush fires started and raged along a front of between two and three miles, one reaching the outskirts of the camp and burning the school to the ground before it could be saved. At Blue Duck, a camp further north, a gale of almost cyclonic force threw down a row of six substantial huts of wood and canvas and tore off the roof of the cookhouse and carried it a distance of nearly half a mile. The cook house at Aniseed was partly destroyed by wind and the roof was also torn off the school at Oaro. the headquarters camp on the southern sector. No one was injured but at least 30 huts were either blown completely down or damaged. There were minor interruptions to the telegraph and telephone services.