Run Country Afire Four Days

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 3

Run Country Afire Four Days

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, Oct. 19.

A tussock, scrub and bracken fire which had raged day and night since Saturday seriously damaged more than 5000 acres of run country high above Lake Wanaka on the Hunter Valley and Makarora Stations before it was extinguished this morning.

There were no stock losses, but the area is expected to be out of production for a long time. It is now completely bare of vegetation and, according to the Otago Catchment Board’s district soil conservator in Alexandra, Mr G. Anderson, it looks “like a desert” in places.

It was not until the extent of the fire was known on Tuesday night that the Vincent Fire Authority was

called in. Ironically enough, the Otago Catchment Board declared the fire season closed in the Vincent and Lake Counties that day. The outbreak is thought to have begun where fencers were working on the Lake Wanaka side of the Hunter Valley Station. At the area known as The Neck, the fire swept from the tops down to the Haast Pass highway, back up again and along the Camp Creek, between The Neck and Makarora. The fire jumped Camp

Creek and carried on into the Makarora Station, burning at times next to the 4000 foot snowline. The bum was described as slow but steady. It was confined for a start to isolated areas and made frequent back burns. More than 3000 wethers on a Makarora Station block were shifted before the fire reached there on Tuesday night. The Hunter Valley and Makarora Station runholders, Messrs J. Gillespie and C. S.

Pennycook, and their employees fought the fire until calling in the Vincent Fire Authority on Tuesday. At 5.30 a.m. today a party of fire authority workers attacked the blaze and finally beat it out at 9 a.m. No water was available to fight the fire. It was beaten out with sacks and flails, Mr James said. Mr Anderson said the fire hazard in Central Otago was extremely serious. The area was very dry and caution was necessary at all times.