HUGE BUSHFIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 February 1942, Page 5

HUGE BUSHFIRE

OUTBREAK IN BLUE MOUNTAINS. 92-ROOM GUEST HOUSE THREATENED. Caves House, the 92-room guesthouse at the famous limestone Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains, 80 miles from Sydney, was threatened with destruction foi’ 24 hours by a fierce bushfire. “Kia-Ora,” a private guest-house, five miles away, was gutted. Drought conditions have made the bush like tinder, and when the fire started in a gully a few miles from Jenolan at 2 p.m. on a recent afternoon, it spread over a huge area, raging along valleys and ovei’ mountains. When Caves House became threatened, the manager (Mr V. Rose) called on the guides, electricians, labourers, guests, and the domestic staff to stand by all night to help fight the flames. “Luckily the wind shifted slightly in the afternoon, and the Are swept down a valley,” said Mr Rose. “I have never seen such flames. They advanced about 10 miles an hour, although the wind was not strong. The roar - could be heard miles away, and the flames rose 100 feet above the tops of trees. The continual crashing of trees was like a series of explosions. The whole sky was obliterated by thick smoke. The famous brown wallabies so well known to dives visitors tore in fright through the burning bush. They made for the caverns of the Devil’s Coach-house and Grand Arch, where they are safe.” Mr Rose said he knew by the direction the fire was travelling that “KiaOra” Guest House was in the danger zone, and with six guides raced to the house about 5 p.m. Mr and Mrs E. G. Corney, who manage the house, and their son were alone. “I was on the telephone speaking to the captain of the volunteer fire brigade,” said Mr Rose, “when I heard the fire close to the house. I shouted to the captain: ‘l’ll have to leave you now, the flames are coming in the back door.’ I hung up and dashed outside as the house started to burn. In a few minutes it was an inferno. The Corneys rescued p few personal belongings and blankets.” “Kia-Ora” was a two-storey weather-board building of 20 rooms, unattached bungalow, and outhouses. Volunteers from neighbouring towns, police from Lithgow, and more than 100 soldiers from a camp 50 miles away who arrived in trucks the next day, burned breaks. Besides protecting Caves House, they saved a Government hardwood and pine forest of 12,000 acres. The five miles of winding road to Caves House was closed, the last car to go through being a Government Tourist Bureau serivce-car. Through the burning area it was guided by a truck from Jenolan Caves. There was continuous danger of falling trees, and more than once the party had to clear away burning tree-trunks which had fallen across the road. Telephone lines and a bridge were destroyed.