Fire razes homestead

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 15

Fire razes homestead

i PA Dunedin The second homestead at Shag Valley station. Dunback. was destroyed by fire on Saturday evening. Mr and Mrs Alf Bell, owners of the sheep station, watched in disbelief as fire gutted their home, leaving the couple with only the clothes they were wearing. Mr and Mrs Bell returned from a holidav on the West [Coast on Saturday afternoon. Before going out to tea to a home about 200 metres down the road, Mr Bell lit the de- • struct or to heat some water I About 8.30 p.m. station (hands in the nearby cookhouse saw the fire. But flames had damaged telephone w ires into the station and the fire brigade had to be called from a neighbour’s house. An engine and water tanker I from the Palmerston volunteer fire brigade raced 32km Ito the fire, but by the time | they arrixed, the house was ablaze from end to end. Water was pumped on to the fire from a nearby duck pond, and station staff and firemen battled to stop the blaze from spreading to trees surrounding the house. Station staff stayed up all Saturday night dampening the smouldering ruins, but by Sunday morning all that was left of the homestead was the chimnev.