HOMESTEAD MENACED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 128, 23 February 1939, Page 10

HOMESTEAD MENACED

Marlborough Grass Fire By Telegraph—Press Association. BLENHEIM, February 22. One of Marlborough’s most substantial homesteads, that of the Vavasours of Ugbrooke, was menaced yesterday afternoon when a grass fire at Dashwood, which swept 3000 acres in the morning, broke out afresh about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. After being fought for four hours by 150 people during the morning the fire was thought to be under control by 1.30 p.m., but a change in the direction of the strong wind carried it into extensive pine plantations near the Ugbrooke homestead, which was in serious danger for a considerable time. The flames reached the laundry and a small storeroom, which were destroyed, but through the efforts of a bucket brigade, which gathered on the roof, (lie homestead itself was saved. Tlie situation was so serious that furniture and valuables in the homestead were shifted to safety. There were stock losses both on Ugbrooke and on the property of Mr. M. H. Costello, but they are not. thought to be serious. The plantations were again threatened last night when the wind changed to the south, but again the efforts of a large baud of tire-fighters were successful. The fire was still smouldering this morning.