BUSH FIRES NO NOVELTY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 4

BUSH FIRES NO NOVELTY

THERE is no novelty in bush fires. If that were not so, the destructive fires in North Auckland this week would have been followed quickly by official action to discover how they started and to prevent their recurrence. But the assumption is that in the hot months of the year bush fires are almost inevitable, like floods in the winter. So in the summer we have bush fires, and in the winter floods, and both cause heavy loss, sometimes to individuals, and always to the nation. When the fires or the floods begin there is a great expenditure of energy, and occasionally of money, to prevent them from spreading and to minimise their effects. Often, in such circumstances, the community spirit is seen at its finest. Men and women sacrifice time, energy, money, and have been known to sacrifice their lives, to save the lives and property of others. How much better it would be if this community spirit, so potent in time of disaster, could be used in a concerted and well-ordered effort to prevent the disasters. Under the spur of danger the people of this community last year spent many hundreds of thousands of pounds in creating and equipping an organisation to act in the event of an emergency created by an enemy action, such as an air raid. There was novelty in that danger. There is no novelty in bush fires; they "happen" every hot summer. Cannot there be created a permanent organisation for the purpose of preventing bush fires, and, when they break out, quickly suppressing them? It happened, most fortunately, that soldiers were available in North Auckland to help in fighting this week's fires. That may not happen again, but the bush will burn again unless there is community action and organisation against it. And the beginning of such action should be a thorough inquiry into the origin of the recent fires, so that such lessons as can be learned will be learned, and applied in the future. The cost of such an inquiry would be a trifle compared With the amounts which the Government is frequently asked to grant for the relief of settlers whose property has been damaged by fire.