FIRE IN BLUEGUM PLANTATION

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24151, 10 January 1944, Page 4

FIRE IN BLUEGUM PLANTATION

FLAMES FOUGHT FOR FIVE HOURS

Considerable damage was done by fire yesterday to a bluegum plantation of about 50 acres owned by the Ashburton County Council and situated near the railway line between Dromore.and Chertsey. The outbreak occurred in the morning and developed furiously during the afternoon. A large number of farmers from surrounding districts and the Ashburton County Council’s fire-fighting plant fought the flames for more than five hours to prevent them from spreading to neighbouring farms, and got them under control about 7.30 p.m. The fire travelled through the whole plantation, burning all the undergrowth and a large number of trees. The fire-fighting unit of the Air Force answered a call to the fire.

GRASS FIRE ON RAKAIA ISLAND

LARGE AREA OF GRAZING DESTROYED Prompt action in removing 1500 sheep from an area swept by the flames a few minutes latex’, probably saved many of the animals from destruction when a grass fire broke out recently on the Rakaia Island, sevex-al miles from Southbridge. Starting near the eastern side of the island and fanned by a south-eastei’ly wind, which later veered to the north and then to the north-east, the flames soon spread to a width of about a mile, and swept a belt reaching to the western side of the island, destroying a large area of grazing and a considerable length of post and wire fencing. The fire also travelled through a pine plantation, and parts of the tree trunks continued to smoulder throughout the afternoon and evening.

Men from the island and from farms across the river hastened to the locality and worked hard on either flank, using back-firing and other methods to confine the flames to as narrow a strip as possible, the heat, smoke, and rapid rate at which the flames travelled making a frontal attack impossible. Large areas of the Rakaia and Fereday’s Islands, the riverbed and plains, are at present in a parched condition, and the utmost care is needed to avoid outbreaks, which would be most difficult to bring under control.