FIGHTING THE FLAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1926, Page 17

FIGHTING THE FLAMES.

CANTERBURY GRASS FIRE.

MILES OP COUNTRY SWEPT.

DAMAGE TOTALS iIAXT THOUSAXD3

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) ASHBURTON, this day For tbe r>a?r, week, Ashburtoa Countyhas had visitations of a series oi grass fires, attributed tc sparks from railway engines. Until to-day, the damage was confined to plantations and hedges alongside the lines, principally the main lines. To-day, however, a fire in the Chertsey district assumed serious proportions, causing damage to pastures, cTops and buildings, estimated at several thousand pounds. The most serious losers were Mr. C. Flynn's stable and two paddocks of oats, Mr. J. Cameron's stables and outbuildings, and Mr. L. Hanrahan's three largo stacks of oats. Mr. William Page, motor garage proprietor of Ashburton, -was severely burned in endeavouring to remove his motor car, which caught fire and was destroyed, while he was assisting to remove furniture from Mr. Hanrahan's house, which was threatened by the lire. He was burned about the back of the head, shoulders and hips. In an effort to gave himself, he rolled into an adjacent water-race. He is now in hospital in a most serious condition. This afternoon, the fire was blazing on a front of four miles, and was travelling at the Tate of four or five miles an hour. Hundreds of men battled for hours against the flame 3, and worked desperately in the removal of furniture, stacks and other goods, to places of safety. Fortunately, no homesteads were burned, though several were threatened, some when women and children were inside, with no means of access. Then, providentially, while the wind was playing with the flames, by a freak of chance, it twisted the fire away when all hope seemed over. In Mr. Cameron's case, the verandah wae burned, but was pulled away by the fire-fighters, and the flames left the building itself untouched. Among the many assisting in the work were numbers of women and girls, who drove off the stock and removed the furniture outside the line of fire. The fire had extended a distance of ten miles from Chertsey, when it was subdued. Much of the credit of this is due to Mr, Alan Watson, who drove a tractor dragging a four-furrow plough over a line of about seven milea, through fences and over water-races, thus forming a effective break, against whicfr the fire died down. The most serious fires prior to that at Chertsey, occurred in the Westerfield district, where 12G acres of plantation were destroyed, despite the efforts of a large number of men, who, in common with those of other localities, have been organised by the county council.