SCRUB FIRE AT CHANEYS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 12

SCRUB FIRE AT CHANEYS

ABOUT 25 ACRES : t BURNT FANNED BY HIGH WIND J A fire which was started originally j_,last Wednesday evening to burn off : scrub in the Chaneys area was revived by the strong north-westerly wind and -.. warm conditions about midday yesterday. It then spread through gorse, blackberry and elderberry and tree stumps. late in the afternoon when a ■ change in the direction of the wind to the south-west had largely checked its movement the fire had burnt over about 25 acres of country. About half of this acreage was burnt yesterday. Hie fire was started last Wednesday evening on a property which the Seventh-day Adventist Church is developing as a camp site. Later in the evening the Waimairi County Council was notified that the fire was spreading. Last Thursday afternoon the fire again revived and a county bulldozer made a fire break in the area. There is a thick covering of pine fieedles and other litter on the ground and the fire bad apparently been smouldering in this material since last week when the north-westerly sprang up yes-

terday. The reserves department of the Christchurch City Council sent a team of 18 to 30 fire fighters to the area, where the fire at one stage entered some gorse on an 1100-acre city reserve. About 400 to 500 acres of the reserve is planted, but the biggest part of the area is let for grazing and it was on to the grazing land that the fire penetrated. The Christchurch Fire Brigade sent two engines and a trailer pump into the area, but there was no handy source of water for the units to draw on. The Waimairi County’s 800-gallon tender was used i to fight the fire and damp down the edges of the burnt-out country when the fire had been checked. County fire fighters included Crs WE. Cassidy and E. R. Stead, and the County Clerk (Mr K. Maclachlan) and the county engineer (Mr D. P. McLellan) . Cr. Stead had a tractor and portable agricultural spraying plant with him. The county’s tender driver dislocated his ankle and Mr McLellan took over from him. The fire spread on to the property of Mr N. L Ashby and at one stage it i threatened to enter a three-acre strip of trees, but fire fighting and a change in the direction of the wind saved them.

Mr Ashby had a stack of 3000 bales of hay nearby and late in the afternoon a neighbour was ploughing a fire break to protect this fodder. Mr Ashby lost between eight and 10 cords of cut firewood in the fire and between six and eight chains of his fencing has been damaged. In the heavy litter the fire was still smouldering at dusk and a small team of men was standing by.