SHEEP BURNED TO DEATH

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27873, 23 January 1956, Page 10

SHEEP BURNED TO DEATH

LOSS ON GRASMERE STATION 4000 ACRES OF PASTURE DESTROYED Fire burned between 100 and 200 sheep to death and destroyed 4000 acres of grasslands at Grasmere Station. Cass, at the week-end. More than 200 volunteers from Darfield. Springfield, nearby stations and campers fought the fire for nearly 30 hours before they brought it under control. The fire broke out at 10 o’clock on Saturday morning in a rubbish tip at Grasmere Station and spread to the Lake Pearson area. The fire burned a ring around outbuildings at Grasmere Station; but no buildings were destroyed. The owner of the station (Mr D. McLeod) said last evening that shearers from neighbouring stations left sheep half shorn to help fight the fire. “They turned half shorn sheep out the ‘portholes’ of the shearing sheds and raced over to fight the fire,” he said. “Volunteer gangs of men from Springfield and Darfield did a magnificent job fighting and watching the fire all Saturday night. That enabled myself and station hands, who were tired out with fighting fires all Saturday, to get a little rest. A southwesterly change came today and at 7 o’clock to-night there seemed little likelihood of the fire starting up again.” Four fires in the Hororata-Darfield area in the last 36 hours destroyed hundreds of acres of grass, scrub and bush. A fire-fighting force of more than 100 men brought all the fires under control in a few hours. The superintendent of the Selwyn Plantation Board (Mr E. A. Cooney) said last night that two of the fires were caused by what amounted to “criminal carelessness.” “The fire at Hororata was definitely caused by someone failing to wet ashes from a kitchen fire,” he said. “Another fire was caused by a cigarette butt from a passing car.” Mr Cooney said that only one of the five fires in his district was in the plantations and this was quickly extinguished. People who had lived 50 years in the district said they had never seen it drier.