GREAT GRASS FIRES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 55, 14 December 1950, Page 5

GREAT GRASS FIRES

THREAT TO HALF N.S.W. WINDS DYING DOWN iN.Z.P A.— Cody right) (Ree. 12.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Great scrub and grass fires, on four fronts totalling 100 miles, are spreading from South Australia into south-western New South Wales. Police at Wentworth and Broken Hill believe that, if strong southerly winds persist, the fires will sweep through half of New South Wales, but the latest reports indicate that the southerlies are dying out. One fire is blazing 100 miles southwest of Broken Hill, on the Australian side, and another is sweeping up from Renmark on three, fronts. Smaller fires, which yesterday camff within 30 miles of Broken Hill, are now under control. v , ,

Thousands of volunteers, police and soldiers are now manning the fire front, and Wentworth is blanketed in smoke from fires 80 miles away. Showers of ashes are falling in the streets. ' Meanwhile, coastal temperatures remain low, but, inland, Bourke, Cobar and Ivanhoe all had readings yesterday over the century mark.

In West Australia the fire hazard is also grave, but the outbreaks have been confined to sparsely settled areas. The port of Onslow, in the Exmouth Gulf, has recorded successive temperatures this- week- of 115, 117 and 117.5