PEAT FIRES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 2, 3 January 1934, Page 3

PEAT FIRES.

SPREAD BY HIGH WINDS

ALARM NEAR WELLINGTON

(By Telegrapti.—Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

Some alarm has been caused residents of the low-lying swamp hind at Paraparaumu, 33 miles from Wellington', by peat fires, which are still burning. Most of the fires have been between the township and the sea, where about 00 acres in all has been burned. In addition, some chains of fencing have been destroyed, and a number of telegraph poles charred about the base. Much good feed has been destroyed at a time when it is most required. Some areas had only recently been resown. and will now have to be done all over again. No buildings have been destroyed, but there have been several narrow escapes. Attention has been given by the Post and Telegraph Department to poles liable to damage, the method adopted being to surround them with sand. This precaution had already been taken with power poles, which have escaped damage. In some cases the peat is as deep as 18ft on a sandy subsoil, and it varies from about 3ft to sft in other parts. Fires among the peat and the rotten timber are most difficult to extinguish. The usual method of combating the fires is to dig trenches and fill them with sand. Thesr have been found effective in cases in which the fire has been slow, but when high winds spring up, as has been the case in recent weeks, the trenches are easily jumped. It is the belief of many farmers that a burn, provided it does not go too deep, does the soil good, the ash forming an excellent seed bed. Others, however, hold the opposite view.