UNDER CONTROL

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 3

UNDER CONTROL

OMAHUTA FOREST FIRES.

KAURI OUT OF DANGER.

ANOTHER FERN OUTBREAK.

Though another fire broke out in the fern last night and swept up a spur towards the forest ridge, it is considered

that the 200 acres of kauri in the Ornahuta State Forest, in the Hokianga County, is still sale. It has been threatened by fire for the past fortnight. "Of course," said Mr. C. Biggs, assistantconservator of forests, who was in charge of the fire-fighting gang, "a fire is never safe until it is definitely out, and that cannot happen until we have heavy rain. But the forest is as safe as our efforts can make it."

Yesterday morning all the fires were under control, and a break had been cut to the north of the forest in the path of the main fire; but last night the fern caught again on another spur to the south of a creek which runs round the main kauri ridge, where the fire break will not stop the flames. The blaze this morning was sweeping up near some dead kauris, the remains of the 1912 outbreak in the region, and if it reaches them the position will again be serious, as dead kauri acts like a torch.

Mr. R. D. Campbell, conservator of forests for the Auckland district, who was in communication with the area this morning, states that the lire-fighters are confident that they will be able to cut another break and thus confine the fire once again. All the fires except the latest may be left to burn out, as they can do no aarm.

On Saturday morning some forty men were commandeered from the Public Works Department, which is constructing a new road up the Omahuta Valley, but in the evening it was decided that the men were no longer needed. Yesterday only eleven men were watching the fire.

On Thursday and Friday the men were engaged in cutting the break, about a chain wide, on a front of some two miles. The ground was not only cleared of fern, but the earth was dug away until the clay showed. By Saturday night the work was completed; but the seat of the lire changed yesterday, and the fire-fighters found that all their desperate work would have to be repeated in a different place. It has been largely due to the efforts of the two forest guards, Mr. E. Newton and Mr. J. Ogle, that the fires have been controlled, and both men have worked, practically without sleep, since the position grew serious. Both of them have spent nights out in the.fern just in case they might be needed. Viewed from th ■ top of the ridge above the Omahuta Valley, the scene is one of utter desolation. Almost as far as the eye can see nothing is visible but smoking, blackened country. Still, from the point of the 'settlers who have recently taken over Crown land in the Omahuta Valley, the fire has done Ivttle harm. Some '5000 acres have been cleared of scrub, a work which would have had to be done in any case by those buying the land. It has been suggested that the fire-swent land should be disposed of quickly so that settlers can sow. Otherwise nothing can be done for three -ears.