FOREST FIRES IN U.S.A.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 94, 22 April 1926, Page 7

FOREST FIRES IN U.S.A.

LOSS OF THREE LIVES. HEAVY MATERIAL DAMAGE. FIGHT AGAINST HEAVY ODDS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) ' (Received 1.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 21. Three lives were lost and many people injured in. forest fires raging over considerable sections of the New York and New Jersey States. There was heavy material damage. The fires are said to be due to one of the worst spring droughts ever experienced. In the Eastern United States three men were burned to death when their motor truck was overtaken by fire. They endeavoured to race the flames through burning pine scrub, but were unsuccessful. Many firemen were overcome by smoke and heat. Numerous villages and homes were destroyed, as well as grist mills.. The summer hotel at Bedford, valued at one hundred thousand dollars, was burned. The New York State fire now covers two square miles. The New Jersey fire is equally extensive, and was fanned by a forty-mile-an-hour gale, but has now been checked after hundreds of volunteer firemen, including schoolboys, fought it for seventy-two hours. —(A. and N.Z.)