NO RESPITE FROM BUSH-FIRES

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22610, 16 January 1939, Page 9

NO RESPITE FROM BUSH-FIRES

Week’s Death-Roll , More Than 170

destruction in N.S.W. Intense Heat Persists (CaITEO PBESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received January 15, 8.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 15. In a week heat and fire have killed more than 170 persons in Australia. It is estimated that the damage by bush-fires will be approximately £2,000,000. Bush-fires round Sydney have caused considerable damage. More than 100 houses have been destroyed or badly damaged. The fires were subdued on Saturday evening, when the wind suddenly changed to the south and caused them to break out again with renewed fury, endangering hundreds of fire-fighters.

All police leave was cancelled and those on leave ordered to return to duty immediately. The fires isolated many districts. Desperate calls for help could not he sent. The city is still enveloped in a pall of smoke. Major bush-fires are raging in the Canberra territory.

Fifty suburban homes and weekend houses were demolished round Sydney. The most extensive damage was done in the Port Hacking district where 45 buildings were either gutted or half destroyed. Thirty-five homes and a church were damaged at Mossvale and 35 homes at Castlehill. At Thirlmere 50 inmates of a sanatorium fled for their lives, but the building was saved. Mittagong was saved only by the sterling efforts of volunteers. Spreading a trail of devastation over a scattered front from Glenbrook to Blackheath, bush flres raged fiercely in the Blue Mountains area. A serious fire swept /Valley Heights on the main western jr/pd, and for several hours the little > Mvnship faced the grim prospect of complete annihilation. However, a change in the wind saved it. .■ The fire burned on a half-mile front at Glenbrook, but last night the town was reported out of danger. Deaths from Heat In spite of the industrial trouble on the south coast, police and more than 300 unionists worked side by side to quell the bush fires 1 that s raged from Nowra to Dapto. Seven houses were burned at Yalwal, the damage being estimated at £6300, Sheep were burnt to death at Heriot ■Hill. At West Dapto, four persons were trapped on the Mossvale railway line, but sought refuge in a tunnel till rescued. Three houses were burnt down at Parma, a house and a church at Beaumont, three houses at Kangaroo Valley, and two houses near Unanderra. ... After the 9 o’clock record high reading of 104.4 degrees the thermometer in Sydney rose relentlessly on Saturday till it reached 113.6 during the afternoon, the highest temperature ever recorded here. Then it gradually receded, but remained above the 100 mark for several hours. In the suburbs away from the sea even higher temperatures were recorded. I The beaches were not as crowded /as might have been expected. The I sand was too hot to sit oh. _ Most I people waited indoors till late in the ■ afternoon and evening, when the f beaches were crowded. Bathers remained in the water till a late hour. The atmosphere in the open was like a furnace-blast. More than 100 cases of collapse were reported by ambulance officers. Bush fires were reported in many suburbs, and every available fireman and hundreds of volunteers were called into service to check them. Saturday’s record heat caused 13 people to lose their lives. One was killed in a bush fire at Nowra, two were burned to death near Liverpool, -.five died from heat-stroke in country districts, and five from the same cause in the city. Victorian Fires On Saturday reports showed that at'least seven more people had lost their lives in Victoria. Many more we missing. Four children of Mr and Mrs John I Robinson, of the Colac district, were burned to, death. John Loosemore, aged 60, lost his life in Gippsland w ben the whole settlement of Hillend was swept away. Another child, kdward McGinty, was killed hear Casterton. An Italian named Fumina lost his J“. e m the large township of Noojee, Lippsland, which was completely w *ped out in theiJ t 926 fires, and was completely dest/ ni j/d again after the Population had ..evacuated on a goods train. I Warburton arid Healesvillc, two other hill resorts, were saved after a oesperate battle. A few houses were oastroyed on the outskirts. Erica was saved by a change of wind, and the population returned. Lorrre narrowly escaped after the « a d burned to within a quarter a mile of its fashionable hotels guest-houses. Hundreds of visitors took refuge on the beach. About 15 houses, including several ones > w ere destroyed. -Many small townships have been entirely obliterated.

Scenery Laid Waste c, widespread are the fires that Wns estimated on Saturday that half the area of the state is ni The fires reached along “"host the entire coastline. The wnoie of the eastern side of the •wte, from the Murray river to the ***• was burning. _Many large outbreaks occurred in and northern districts. jJ-he ferocity of the fires on Fri?®y was caused by a 70 miles an nort herly gale, before which me fires raced uncontrolled through ■he hills and valleys. The toll of F°perty is incalculable at present. one tour i st town escaped The vast areas which formerly

were Victoria’s scenic pride are now blackened wastes of ruin. Beautiful fern gullies and forest-clad hillsides have been swept bare. Miles of bitumen highways have been burnt to cinders. " ■ . , _., A change of on Friday brought temporary relief, but another north wind was forecast for Saturday, making the state’s seventh successive day of terror since the fires began.

BUTTER SHIPMENTS AGAIN REDUCED

FARMERS* LOSSES THROUGH DROUGHT SYDNEY, January 14. The Australian Dairy Produce Board decided, in view of the continued hot, dry weather and the ■serious decrease in production throughout the Commonwealth, that shipments of butter to the United Kingdom would be reduced from 2000 tons to 1500 tons, commencing from the week ending January 29. This is the second reduction within 10 days. On January 3 the board announced that weekly shipments would be reduced from 2500 tons to 2000 tons commencing from the week ending January 22. Through the dry spell m New South Wales during the last five months, dairy farmers throughout the northern river districts will be poorer by £IOOO on December production alone. CYCLONE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA HOUSES BLOWN TO SEA (Received January 15, 7.5 p.m.) PERTH, January 14. Telephone news from Port Hedland states that no lives were lost in the cyclone, but damage to property was extensive. Three houses were blown out to sea and many others were demolished when the cyclone struck the town on Wednesday.