GRASS FIRE AT GLENAVY

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22909, 4 January 1940, Page 6

GRASS FIRE AT GLENAVY

PASTURE, HEDGES, AND FENCES DESTROYED

[From Our Own Reporter] WAIMATE, January 3. Forty acres of pasture was burnt and miles of countryside threatened by a grass fire at Glenavy yesterday. The cause of the outbreak was attributed to the carelessness of a motorist, who picnicked by the roadside. The grass was long and dry, and the hedges like tinder from the hot, dry weather lately, and the fire swept rapidly through them. A number of farmers and assistants attempted to extinguish the flames, while two farmers stopped on the roadside and signalled to motorists for assistance. When the fire was finally extinguished, about 40 acres of grass had been burnt and half a mile or more of gorse hedge and fencing was destroyed. At one stage it had appeared hopeless to save miles of countryside from devastation.